A top European Union official told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday that China and the EU must address both the imbalances in their trading relationship and Russian aggression against Ukraine. The two are divided on both issues. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, meeting Xi in the Chinese capital, said they need to manage their differences responsibly.
“China is the EU’s most important trading partner,” von der Leyen said in opening remarks posted on the commission’s website. “But there are clear imbalances and differences that we must address.” Xi said that China and the EU should handle their differences through dialogue, and pushed back against what his government sees as a shift in European policy on China toward a more strident and competitive approach.
The two sides “should not regard each other as rivals because of different systems, reduce cooperation because of competition, and confront each other because of differences”, he said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The meeting comes a day after EU member Italy announced it was withdrawing from Xi’s signature “Belt and Road’’ initiative that aims to build a global network of Chinese-financed roads, ports and power plants.
Italy became the first G7 country to sign on to the initiative in 2019, when the government at the time promoted it as a way of increasing trade with China while getting investments in major infrastructure projects.Neither outcome materialized. In the intervening years, Italy’s trade deficit with China has ballooned from 20 billion euros to 48 billion euros (USD 21.5 billion to USD 51.8 billion.) Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin defended the initiative and appeared to imply that Italy had been influenced by forces hostile to China.
“China firmly opposes smearing and undermining cooperation in building the Belt and Road and opposes stoking bloc confrontation and divisions,” Wang said at a daily briefing on Thursday. Von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the president of the EU Council, met Xi in the morning and were meeting with China’s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Qiang, later in the day. Von der Leyen, as commission president, heads the day-to-day business of the EU, while Michel chairs the summits of EU leaders. The European Union is calling on China to improve market access for products from its 27 member countries to address an annual trade imbalance of more than USD 200 billion.