Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit Europe next week for the first time in five years on an unlikely trip through France, Hungary and Serbia.
The visit comes as China seeks to avoid a trade war with the EU and attitudes toward China have hardened in the region following multiple spying scandals and China’s continued support for Russia in the Ukraine war. It was conducted.
President Xi’s first destination will be Paris. He is scheduled to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday.
“The Chinese leadership has been very clear about what they want,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Abigael Vasselier. Merricks, a German think tank specializing in China. Mr. Vasselier said Mr. Xi would focus particularly on lobbying against the EU’s anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles (EVs) and stabilizing bilateral relations.
In September, von der Leyen said in remarks widely understood to be aimed at China that the global market was “abundant with cheap electric cars…” [whose] Prices are kept artificially low by massive state subsidies. ” The investigation is seen as unfair and politically motivated and has caused widespread unrest in Beijing.
On Thursday, the European Commission’s trade chief suggested that tariffs could be imposed on Chinese EVs by June, following the launch of an investigation into state support for electric vehicle manufacturing in the country. The deadline for the measures to be implemented is July 4th.
Vasselier said China “cannot afford to tighten further restrictions on the European market,” but at the same time “China has no offer for Europe at the moment.”
Because one of the things that Europe, and President Macron, have long wanted from China is for President Xi to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. “Two years into the war, Europeans realized this wasn’t going to happen,” Vasselier said.
Professor Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar, said the Taiwan issue was more important to China than the Ukraine issue.
The last time Macron, von der Leyen and Xi met in person was in April last year, when Europeans flew to Beijing. Macron, who arrived with a 50-person business delegation and returned with 18 cooperation agreements signed between French and Chinese companies, said Europe should not become a “follower of America” on the Taiwan issue. He told reporters that there was no such thing, causing a stir during his visit. US President Joe Biden has repeatedly said the US will defend Taiwan militarily in the event of an attempted annexation by China.
“When the French president visited China last year, he said very clearly: France should have its own independent position on the Taiwan issue,” Shen said. “China highly values his position.”
The personal relationship between Mr. Xi and Mr. Macron further strengthened last year when the Chinese president took the French president on a rare personal trip to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. President Macron is scheduled to return the favor by visiting France’s mountainous Hautes-Pyrenees next week.
But despite the personal chemistry between Mr. Xi and Mr. Macron, “Chinese Communist Party leaders have no friends. They have vested interests,” said Dr. , says Charles Parton, a former British diplomat in China. “It’s a way to relentlessly advance your own interests.”
“If China thinks it can benefit from engaging with Europe as a whole, it will definitely do so. Dealing with an individual can hurt the whole, so if we think there is an advantage, we will deal with an individual.” ” Parton says.
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The EU probe into allegations of state aid to the car industry is one in a series ordered by Brussels into supplies for Europe, such as medical equipment and wind turbines, which are sold at 50% of the price of European-made products. , has long been considered to be in the lead. within the sector. China claims the trade investigation is politically motivated and that the only losers in the tariff battle will be consumers.
As relations between the two countries become increasingly tense, emphasis has been placed on bilateral relations. There are also concerns within the EU about disinformation and foreign interference, with an aide to German AfD lawmaker Maximilian Kula arrested on suspicion of being a Chinese spy.
On April 24, the Dutch and Polish offices of Chinese security equipment company Nuctech were raided by the EU’s competition regulator as part of a new investigation into foreign subsidies. The move was directed by the European Commission, but China’s Ministry of Commerce immediately condemned it.
Tariffs on EVs would be even more onerous for the Chinese government. Last year, the EU’s EV imports from China reached $11.5 billion. according to rhodium group.
President Xi is also scheduled to visit Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary, one of Europe’s closest allies. Relations between China and Hungary have become increasingly close in recent years. In February, China proposed deepening law enforcement ties with Hungary, extending the already good relationship beyond the economic sphere into a security cooperation agreement, causing concern in other EU countries. Hungary is already Huawei’s largest base outside China, and the country will soon be home to automaker BYD’s first European factory.
Instead, Mr. Orbán has been a vocal supporter of China in international forums. Hungary has on several occasions opposed EU motions criticizing China on human rights.
The most symbolic stop on the trip will be Xi’s visit to Belgrade, which marks the 25th anniversary of the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in the Serbian capital. The incident, in which three Chinese journalists were killed, greatly increased anti-American sentiment in China. The attack also further intensified China’s hostility toward NATO, as it occurred during the alliance’s bombing of Yugoslavia.
China’s hostility toward NATO is part of the reason Beijing has maintained support for Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine. Xi’s visit “will serve as a reminder to the world that although China and Serbia are geographically separated by the Eurasian continent, they share the same security interests. Security provided by the United States and NATO We need to strengthen cooperation to overcome security threats,” said Shen.
The visit to Belgrade is not as strategically important as the meetings in Paris or Budapest. But Parton said: And that is entirely in line with their intentions and interests in highlighting America’s actions. ”
