Leaders of the EU met China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Thursday in an effort to stabilise a relationship that has deteriorated in recent years over security, a soaring trade imbalance and China’s tacit support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Xi’s meeting with Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, was the first in-person summit of the leaders of China and the EU in more than four years.

The summit was not expected to result in any significant breakthroughs. Trust between China and the EU has been eroded by failed promises to open China’s market wider for European businesses, as well as by Beijing’s crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. China also views Europe as being widely influenced by Beijing’s chief competitor, the US.

Beijing has tried to court Europe to drive a wedge between the region and Washington. The war in Ukraine, however, has only strengthened the trans-Atlantic alliance as Europe has grown increasingly reliant on US.

The 27-member European bloc has labelled Beijing a “strategic rival” and agreed in June to work toward “de-risking” its supply chains by limiting their dependence on Chinese firms. The EU has also aligned itself with the US in adopting restrictions on the trade of high-tech products with China.

Those moves underscore the widening rift between the West and China as Xi has adopted a more assertive foreign policy aimed at reshaping the global order to serve Chinese interests. According to an official summary from China of Xi’s meeting with the European leaders, Xi urged them to bolster cooperation with China to enhance “political mutual trust” and “eliminate all kinds of interference”.

Chinese officials have sought to push back on the EU’s efforts to limit its economic dependence on China.

New York Times News Service