Diplomacy
Xi Jinping calls on the EU to strengthen mutual trust
This Thursday, China receives the leaders of the European Union in Beijing on Thursday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.
Chinese and European leaders, including Xi Jinping and Antonio Costa, at the EU-China summit at the Grand Palais du Peuple in Beijing on July 24, 2025.
AFP
Xi Jinping told EU leaders on Thursday that Beijing and Brussels were to strengthen their mutual trust, the president of the European Commission calling for “real solutions” for bilateral relations which are at a “pivotal moment”.
China is looking for in recent months to tighten your ties with the old continent. It presents itself as a more reliable partner than the United States of Donald Trump and a stability pole in a world in the grip of disorders.
The Xi Jinping meeting Thursday in Beijing with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, is supposed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations. But European leaders arrived with a long list of litigation.
“Instabilities” in the world
Among them: an important commercial imbalance against the EU, fears of flooding the European market by cheap and subsidized Chinese products, or the Beijing-Moscow rapproche, seen with suspicion against the background of Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The more serious and complex the international situation, the more China and the EU must intensify communication, strengthen mutual trust and deepen cooperation,” Xi Jinping told its hosts, according to a press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Faced with “instabilities” in the world, “Chinese and European leaders must once again show clairvoyance and engagement, and make the right strategic choice that meets the expectations of peoples and that resists the test of history,” he said.
“Pivotal moment”
In response, Ursula von der Leyen told Xi Jinping that it was “essential that China and Europe recognize their respective concerns and offer concrete solutions”. She warned that relations had reached a “pivotal moment”.
For his part, Antonio Costa told Xi Jinping that the EU wanted to see “concrete progress on questions related to trade and the economy”. “We both want our relationship to be (…) mutually beneficial,” he said.
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Brussels recognized that Thursday’s discussions between his senior officials and Xi Jinping as well as Prime Minister Li Qiang could be tense. “We know that we do not agree with China on many subjects,” a senior European official at AFP last week. “But we believe that it is essential to have this very direct, open and constructive type of exchange, at the highest level.”
At the top of European concerns: the abyssal trade deficit with Beijing, which reached $ 357 billion (283 billion francs) last year. In response to a European call for “rebalancing” of economic exchanges, Beijing had urged Brussels to rebalance its “state of mind” vis-à-vis China-considered too hostile.
Ukraine
Before her visit, Ursula von der Leyen also assured that Brussels would ask Beijing to open his market to European companies more and to soften its restrictions on the export of rare land – strategic for modern technologies.
The EU has imposed heavy customs duties on electric vehicles made in China, accusing Chinese state subsidies of distorting competition, to the detriment of European manufacturers. Beijing denied these accusations and responded with targeted investigations on imports of pork, cognac and European dairy products.
On the war in Ukraine, Europeans have suspected the economic and political rapprochement China-Russia since the invasion of 2022. The EU considers that it constitutes implicit support in Moscow. Antonio Costa still called China on Thursday, during its interview with Xi Jinping, to “use its influence on Russia” to end the war.
Last week, the EU adopted new sanctions against Russia – notably targeting two Chinese banks. This measure prompted the Chinese trade minister to protest with his European counterpart. “We are not naive. We do not ask China to cut its links with Russia but to strengthen its customs and financial controls, “said the senior European official with AFP.
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