Xi Jinping declines to attend EU-China anniversary summit

Beijing (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – In response to an invitation to visit Brussels for the 50th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic ties, China’s President Xi Jinping has declined to attend the summit, the Financial Times reported.

China told European Union officials that Premier Li Qiang would hold talks with the presidents of the European Council and European Commission instead of Xi, the  Financial Times revealed.

The Chinese premier usually takes part in the summit when it is hosted in Brussels, while the president hosts it in Beijing, but the European Union wants Xi to participate to commemorate half a century of ties between Beijing and the EU.

How have tensions between China and the EU escalated?

Tensions between the European Union and China have increased since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the European Union blaming China of backing Russia, the FT said. Last year, the European Union also inflicted tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports.

EU officials express that China, which last year had a €304.5bn trade deficit with the EU, is not doing sufficient to rebalance trade by lowering subsidies for its industries and reducing trade barriers for foreign firms doing business in the world’s second-largest economy. “The relationship is on ice,” stated a senior EU diplomat.

“t is a change of tone not substance. Their policy is not going to change and the same is true for us.

Informal discussions are ongoing, both about setting the date for the EU-China summit this year and the level of representation,

an EU official said, while the Chinese ministry was cited as saying it did not have any details to provide on the matter. Furthermore, the EU’s trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is set to visit China at the end of this month. 

China, the world’s second-biggest economy, and the European Union, its third-largest, spent most of 2024 exchanging taunts over allegations of overcapacity, unfair subsidies and abandoning each other’s markets.

In October, the EU set double-digit tariffs on China-made electric vehicles after an anti-subsidy inquiry, in addition to its traditional car import duty of 10%. The move attracted loud protests from China, which in return, increased market entry obstacles for certain EU products such as brandy.