“CONFRONTATION”
Xi said China and Europe should not view each other as rivals or “engage in confrontation” because of their different political systems.
China is willing to make the 27-nation EU a key economic and trade partner and to cooperate on science and technology, including artificial intelligence, Xi said.
He urged the EU in talks at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse to “eliminate all kinds of interference” in the bilateral relationship, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Xi said both sides needed to develop “a right perception” of each other, and encourage mutual understanding and trust.
Li said at a separate meeting that China opposed the “broad politicisation and securitisation” of economic and trade issues in violation of the basic norms of market economies, CCTV said.
“We hope that the EU will be prudent when introducing restrictive economic and trade policies and when using trade remedy measures to keep its trade and investment markets open,” Li said.
A big focus of the EU visit was to urge Xi to stop Chinese private companies exporting European-made, dual-use items to Russia for its military campaign in Ukraine.
Michel urged China to “engage constructively” on peace proposals by Kyiv, but EU officials gave no indication of movement on the issue of private Chinese re-exports to Russia.
China has pushed back against an EU anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles and the EU’s “de-risking” policy to reduce its reliance on Chinese imports, particularly of critical raw materials.
He Yadong, a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson, said China believed the investigation “seriously disrupts and distorts the global automotive industry chain … and will have a negative impact on China-EU economic and trade relations”.
Noah Barkin, senior visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund, said the summit was largely about “managing differences, and preventing a descent into confrontation”.
“The EU side achieved its main goal, which was to convey the seriousness of its concerns about imbalances in the trade relationship and China’s support for Russia,” he said. “But it would be wrong to expect the fundamental economic and political changes from Xi Jinping that the EU is seeking.”
Source: CNA
