The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will pay a three day visit to China starting Thursday in an effort to diffuse tensions between Brussels and Beijing an to put the relationship back on track after years of friction.
Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said it "is favourable for the healthy, stable development of ties (and) serves as good preparation for the next stage of talks.
"China is ready to work with the EU to enhance mutual trust, expand cooperation, overcome interference," Wang added.
Beijing's propaganda is also striking a considerably softer tone towards Borrell, calling him a "healthy voice" within the EU leadership as well as toning down earlier criticism where they accused the EU of "gunboat diplomacy" and "leading the EU in a ditch" when it came to relations with Beijing.
Borell, too seems to be set on reconciliation. In his Blog on China, he says he wants to "revers the negative trend in EU-China relations.
"The EU's current position on China, endorsed by the European Council in 2020, is based on the known triptych: partner, competitor and systemic rival," he says.
The low point of the recent relationship was the shelving, in early 2021, of the China EU Comprehensive Trade Agreement (CAI) after an increasingly vicious war of words over human rights, Hong Kong and China's perceived aggression in the South China Sea.
Ties worsened, says Borrell, as a result of "China's disproportionate response to EU’s targeted restricted measures, China’s trade measures against Lithuania (after Vilnius upgraded its ties with Taiwan) with a direct impact on our EU single market, and China's position on the war against Ukraine," where it shows clear support for Russia.
Borrell also criticises China for not doing enough about climate change ("China still burns as much coal as the rest of the world combined".)
But he completey downplays human rights issues, putting it at the end of his blog without mentioning Beijing's discriminatory treatment of minorities such as Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongols, the restrictions imposed on Hong Kong or its increasingly belligerent tone vis-à-vis Taiwan.
He also admits that "we have deep and serious differences here," adding that the EU-China dialogue on human rights, (a rather theoretical get-together of officials that never produced results) was resumed "after a four-year interruption. Borrell's mild stance on human rights will be duely noted in Beijing.
Largest trading partners
In spite of all the current frictions, the EU and China are each other's largest trading partner as of 2023, while China accounted for 9% of EU goods exports and 20% of EU goods imports.
Because of this, EU officials stress that they prefer to "de-risk" rather than "de-couple" relations with Beijing. The EU Commission earlier this month published a list of four of the most critical technologies it believes Europe must monitor more carefully because they have the potential to harm the bloc's security when in the wrong hands.
They are advanced semi-conductors used in many of electrical goods, artificial intelligence including cloud computing, quantum technologies, and biotechnologies including genetic modification techniques.
The European Parliament also gave final approval to a mechanism that would allow the bloc to impose tariffs, restrict investment and limit access to public contracts for nations seen as engaging in economic blackmail.
Belt and Road: more "de-risking" ahead?
Borrell's visit precedes the Belt & Road (BRI) Forum, set for 17-18 October, marking the 10th anniversary of this trillion dollar, world wide construction project.
In 2019, EU-member Italy became the first (and only) G7 member that signed up to the BRI, that guides Chinese banks and companies to finance and build everything from ports, telecommunications infrastructure, power plants, railways, and highways to fiber-optic cables, and smart cities around the world.
But the 2019 Memorandum is due to expire next year, and Italy has indicated that it does not want to continue any longer. The project did not live up to Rome's expectations: since signing to the BRI, while Italian exports to China did increase from €14.5 billion to €18.5 billion, while Chinese exports to Italy grew from €33.5 billion to a staggering €50.9 billion euros, massively increasing the trade deficit.
