Chinese President Xi Jinping and European Council President Charles Michel will meet this week in Beijing, but ties are unlikely to improve significantly, observers said. Contentious issues like EU sanctions on Chinese officials and Russia’s war in Ukraine are expected to be on the table when Michel visits Beijing on December 1, but he is not planning to stay overnight. He will be the second European leader to travel to China since the 20th Communist Party Congress after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited earlier this month. French President Emmanuel Macron and newly elected Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are also planning visits.
Michel’s visit indicates that the European Union will not copy the hardline U.S. approach towards China, according to Giulia Sciorati, Associate Research Fellow at the Asia Center of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies in Milan. “Although U.S. expectations will undoubtedly be considered, the EU will continue its dialogue with China on European terms and according to European interests,” she said. However, she was skeptical whether “this visit alone will lead to significant steps, backward or forward, in China-EU relations, either politically or economically”. “It certainly shows the two parties’ willingness to reopen dialogue. At this stage, it is impossible to say whether any agreement will be reached, although, given the timeline, it appears unlikely.”
Sciorati expects Michel to reiterate EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell’s recent statements distancing the bloc from U.S. decoupling policies, especially its ban on high-end chip exports to China, which is seen as an attempt to cripple the Chinese hi-tech sector. “Certainly, the United States are our most important ally, but, in some cases, we will not be in the same position or on the same approach towards China,” Borrell said, adding that Washington’s “drastic reduction of China’s access” to technology is a “decision that has to be taken into account”. Borrell plans to travel to Washington this week for talks on China with his U.S. counterparts.
Wang Huiyao, President of the Center for China and Globalization, said Michel may leave China with new trade deals, although what those will be remains unclear. “Many German and European companies want to work with China, and many European companies in the semiconductor industry were unhappy with the U.S. monopoly after decoupling from China,” he said.Xi and Michel are expected to also discuss EU sanctions on Chinese officials over alleged “serious human rights violations” related to Xinjiang. The sanctions are set to be renewed shortly after Michel’s visit, the South China Morning Post and the Global Times report.
