Beijing – Chinese President Xi Jinping Top exhorted Union Europor officers Thursday to “manage the differences and friction properly” when he criticized the recent commercial actions of Brussels against Beijing at a tense summit dominated by Commercial concerns And Ukrainian war.
Expectations were low for the summit in the Chinese capital Marking 50 years of diplomatic links After weeks growing tension And competing in its format, the duration suddenly divided into half a single day at the request of Beijing.
“The current challenges to which Europe does not come from China,” Xi told the visit of the European Commission to visit Ursula von der Leyen And the president of the European Council Antonio Costa, said the state agency Xinhua.
He urged the EU to “adhere to the opening of cooperation and properly manage differences and friction”, after Von der Leyen called a rebalancing of commercial links as soon as possible with The second world economysaying that relationships were at a “inflection point”.
“Improvement of competitiveness cannot count on” the construction of walls and fortresses, “added Xi, according to Xinhua. “The” decoupling and rupture chains “will only be isolation.”
“We hope that the European party will keep the commercial market and open investments and will refrain from using restrictive economic and commercial tools,” said Xi.
During the meeting of the great Pek’s Salle of the People, Von Der Leyen told Xi: “As our cooperation has deepened, the same goes for a pool report.
“We have reached an inflection point,” she added, urging China to “present real solutions”.
It referred to the EU trade deficit with China, which reached a historic amount of 305.8 billion euros ($ 360 billion) last year.
EU trade actions in the past year have targeted Chinese exports of electric vehicles among other goods, and its officials have complained several times at the Chinese industrial overcapacity.
In a new veiled criticism of Brussels’s recent bellicist position on China, XI also warned EU leaders to “make correct strategic choices”.
The two EU officials were later to meet Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang. The two parties hope to reach a modest joint climate declaration, now one of the rare light points of their cooperation.
At the start of The second term of President Donald TrumpThe two parties had more consensus to work together to meet the trade challenges of the United States, said Cui Hongjian, professor of foreign policy at the Beijing Foreign Studies University.
“Recently, the situation has changed,” said Cui. “The EU continued to compromise with the United States, which means that there is currently a lack of momentum for EU-Chinese links.”
The supplier of the summit saw trade disputes and European bellicist rhetoric, as an accusation of July 8 by Von der Leyen that China flooded world markets because of its overcapacity and “allowing the economy of the war of Russia”.
In a Publish Thursday, however, Von der Leyen took a more conciliatory tone, describing the summit as an opportunity to “advance and rebalance our relationship”.
Subjects that Europeans should raise in talks are electric vehicles and China’s rare earth export controls This disrupted supply chains from around the world, causing temporary stops in European automotive production lines in May.
But Chinese exports of rare earth magnets to the EU jumped in June 245% compared to May, to be located at 1,364 metric tonnes (1,503 short tonnes), although this is still 35% lower than the figure of the year, showed customs data.
The EU is likely to seal a Trade work with the United States For a wide price of 15% on its exports after intense negotiations, avoiding a figure of 30% harder threatened by Trump.