EU chief says ties with China at ‘inflection point’

EU-China relations have reached an “inflection point”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at a one-day summit in Beijing.

“As our co-operation has deepened, so have imbalances,” von der Leyen said, referring to the European Union’s huge trade deficit with China. She also warned China’s ties with Russia were now the “determining factor” in its relations with the EU.

Xi urged EU leaders to “properly manage differences”, saying “the current challenges facing Europe do not come from China”.

Earlier in the year there were suggestions a Trump presidency could help the EU and China find common cause but instead ties have grown more fraught.

The EU’s 27 member states are grappling with similar pressures to China, not least the tariffs imposed on their exports to the US.

But despite this, expectations were low that anything significant would emerge from the summit, which had been halved in length to just one day, at Beijing’s request.

During a meeting in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa called for both sides to find “real solutions”.

“It is vital for China and Europe to acknowledge our respective concerns,” von der Leyen said.

Xi called for “mutual trust” with EU countries at the meeting, state news agency Xinhua reported.

“Boosting competitiveness [does not come from] building walls or barriers, as decoupling and severing supply chains will only result in self-isolation,” he said.

Last year, the EU recorded a €305.8bn ($360bn; £265bn) trade deficit with China, a number that has doubled in the past nine years.

The EU has criticised China for industrial overcapacity and imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

Rebalancing will involve increasing market access for European companies in China, reducing export controls and limiting the impact of overcapacity, von der Leyen said.

China’s foreign ministry said after the meeting that Beijing was ready to work with relevant countries to “enhance dialogue on export controls”.

Von der Leyen and Costa also said they had pressed China to use its influence to persuade Russia to end its war in Ukraine.

“How China continues to interact with Putin’s war will be a determining factor for our relations going forward,” von der Leyen told a news conference at the end of the summit.

Shortly after arriving in Beijing, von der Leyen described the summit as an opportunity for both sides to “advance and rebalance” their relationship.

“I’m convinced there can be a mutually beneficial co-operation… One that can define the next 50 years of our relations,” she wrote on X.

Her words echoed the image of hope that both sides projected ahead of the summit. EU officials had said that they were ready for frank conversations, while Chinese officials had framed it as a chance for greater collaboration.

China’s foreign ministry said earlier in the week the bilateral relationship was at a “critical juncture of building on past achievements and opening up a new chapter”.

But Xi’s decision to reject an invitation to Brussels earlier this year, and then to show up in Moscow in May for Russia’s annual World War Two victory parade, made for a poor start.

Engin Eroglu, who chairs the European Parliament’s China delegation, believes that an already fragile trust between China and the EU has reached a new low: “In this atmosphere of strategic mistrust, the mood is clearly tense – if not frosty.”

One of the main things that has led to the deterioration of relations between the two giants is the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The EU’s decision to impose sanctions last week on two Chinese banks for their role in supplying Russia has annoyed Beijing in the run-up to this summit and made for an awkward climate.

China said it had lodged “solemn representations” to the EU’s trade chief ahead of the summit.

And reports that Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas this month that Beijing did not want to see Russia lose the war in Ukraine – contradicting China’s official position of neutrality – have also been circulating.

Wang reportedly said that the Russia-Ukraine war would keep the US distracted from its rivalry with China – something Beijing has denied.

Kallas had earlier this year called China the “key enabler of Russia’s war” in Ukraine, adding that “if China would want to really stop the support, then it would have an impact”.

Trade relations have been central to the EU’s concerns.

After the EU imposed tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles last year, Beijing came up with retaliatory duties on European liquor.

And this month, Beijing restricted government purchases of EU medical devices – a response to the EU imposing similar limitations on Chinese medical equipment in June.

And perhaps more importantly, China also raised export controls on rare earths and critical minerals this year and the European Commission’s von der Leyen has accused Beijing of using its “quasi-monopoly” on the global market in rare earths as a weapon to undermine competitors in key industries.

Europe is already frustrated by seeing its industries threatened by cheap, subsidised Chinese goods.

In an earlier interview with Chinese state-linked news outlet The Paper, China’s ambassador to the European Union Cai Run took issue with the EU’s positioning of China as a “partner for co-operation, economic competitor, and systemic rival”.

“The EU’s threefold positioning of China is like a traffic light going green, amber and red lights all at once. Not only does it fail to direct traffic, it only creates difficulties and obstruction.”