Hong Kong
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged the European Union to make “the right strategic choice” and enhance cooperation with China, while EU leaders called for a rebalancing of trade ties, as the two sides tackle deep-seated grievances at a tense summit in Beijing.
European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Xi on Thursday morning and Chinese Premier Li Qiang in the afternoon, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The European leaders used the meetings to voice their concerns over a host of thorny issues, from the gaping trade imbalance between the two economies to China’s ongoing support for Russia in the Ukraine war, and – more recently – Beijing’s chokehold on the rare earths supply chain.
Von der Leyen told Xi that the EU’s economic ties with China – running at a trade deficit of 300 billion euros ($350 billion) last year – had reached “an inflection point.”
“As our cooperation has deepened, so have imbalances,” she said. “Rebalancing our bilateral relation is essential… It is vital for China and Europe to acknowledge our respective concerns and come forward with real solutions.”
Costa, meanwhile, urged Xi to use China’s influence to bring an end to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
The summit, which has been whittled from a planned two days to a single-day event, is ostensibly meant to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic ties between Beijing and the EU.
But it is instead exposing a widening rift between the two sides – even though both had signaled hopes for a reset in relations just months earlier, as they faced down US President Donald Trump’s global tariff war.
On Thursday, Xi told Costa and von der Leyen at the Great Hall of the People that the challenges currently faced by Europe “do not come from China” and urged the EU to “properly handle differences and frictions.” He called on the bloc to keep its markets open to imports and investment while exercising “restraint” in using restrictive trade and other economic measures, according to a readout from China’s foreign ministry.
“In the face of accelerating changes not seen in a century and a turbulent international landscape, China and EU leaders must… make the right strategic choices that meet the expectations of the people and stand the test of history,” Xi said, according to CCTV.
Without directly mentioning Trump’s trade war, Xi emphasized that both China and the EU are “constructive forces that support multilateralism and advocate for openness and cooperation.”
“The more severe and complex the international situation becomes, the more China and the EU need to strengthen communication, enhance mutual trust and deepen cooperation,” Xi was quoted as saying.
But for the EU, a long list of grievances is standing in the way of closer ties.
The bloc raised its concerns at the summit about Beijing’s “ongoing systemic distortions and growing manufacturing overcapacity,” which it said resulted in an even more uneven playing field, according to an EU press release.
The European leaders also urged China to take concrete action to address European businesses’ access to the Chinese market, put an end to “unjustified and retaliatory” trade measures on EU exports and lift export controls on rare earths and permanent magnets.
In a veiled threat, the EU officials vowed to take “proportionate, legally compliant action” to protect the bloc’s interests if negotiated solutions cannot be reached.
The EU also repeated its calls on Beijing not to provide any material support for Russia’s military-industrial base and expressed concerns over China’s policies in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas.
But in a rare point of agreement, the two sides issued a joint statement on climate, pledging to “demonstrate leadership together” and to draw up ambitious plans to reduce planet-heating pollution before the COP30 climate conference, scheduled for November.
The pledge stands in stark contrast to the climate policy of the Trump administration, which has withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement and fired the State Department’s career staff overseeing climate negotiations.
The EU was far from shy about its grievances in the lead-up to the summit. Officials in recent weeks have reiterated concerns over what they say are inexpensive Chinese goods “flooding” European markets, Beijing’s recent move to squeeze the rare earths supply chain, and its ongoing backing for Russia as it wages war in Ukraine.
Beijing has lashed out against those concerns, including the 27-member bloc’s move last year to raise tariffs on its electric vehicles, launching a range of its own trade probes in apparent retaliation.
After the EU last month announced it was barring Chinese companies from participating in public tenders for medical devices over a certain value, Beijing hit back with its own curbs on government purchases of Europe-made devices.
China’s Ministry of Commerce has also slammed the EU decision to include two Chinese banks and a handful of other firms in its latest sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. It claimed the move would have a “severely negative impact on China-EU economic and trade relations.”
On Tuesday, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao lodged solemn representations — diplomatic speak for formally expressing serious discontent — over the sanctions in a video call with EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic.
Trump’s trade war – and his negotiations with both major economies – is also casting a long shadow over the summit.
There were signs earlier this year that Beijing hoped shared adversity in the face of tariff threats from the US could push China and Europe together.
But in separate addresses to G7 leaders and European lawmakers in recent weeks, von der Leyen made clear the bloc’s deep concerns about Beijing were unresolved.
“China is using this quasi-monopoly (on rare earths) not only as a bargaining chip, but also weaponizing it to undermine competitors in key industries,” she told G7 leaders meeting in Canada in June.
Beijing has extensive control over supply chains for these critical minerals key in everything from EV batteries and cell phones to fighter jets. It roiled the global manufacturing industry after placing export controls on some such minerals in April amid its trade spat with the US. China agreed during a truce with the US in June to ease these controls.
Von der Leyen also called for unified G7 action to pressure Beijing as it “floods global markets with subsidized overcapacity that its own market cannot absorb.”
Simone McCarthy in Hong Kong and Olesya Dmitracova and Laura Paddison in London contributed reporting.
