Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang will reportedly attend the Brussels summit marking 50 years of diplomatic ties instead of the president.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has turned down an invitation to visit Brussels for a summit this year marking the 50th anniversary of his country’s relations with the EU, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The Chinese leader’s reported snub comes at a time of growing tensions between Beijing and Brussels. Over the past year, China and the EU have clashed over what the EU believes is Beijing’s dumping of certain key goods and its industrial overproduction. Adding to the tension was a wave of retaliatory tariffs placed by the EU on Chinese goods.
Beijing informed EU officials that Prime Minister Li Qiang would meet the presidents of the European Council and European Commission instead of Xi, the FT said, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The prime minister usually attends the summit when it takes place in Brussels, while the president hosts it in Beijing. However, this time the EU wanted Xi to attend given the significance of the meeting, which marks half a century of diplomatic relations, the sources told the outlet.
“Informal discussions are ongoing, both about setting the date for the EU-China summit this year and the level of representation,” an EU official told the FT, while the Chinese ministry was quoted as saying it did not have any information to provide on the matter.
Tensions between the EU and China intensified following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 when the EU accused Beijing of supporting Moscow.
China has adhered to a policy of neutrality in the Ukraine conflict, and has firmly rebuffed Western calls to impose sanctions on Russia, opting instead to boost trade with its neighbor. This has led to accusations from the bloc and its NATO allies that Beijing is fueling Russia’s military effort by supplying it with dual-use components that can be utilized in weapons production.
The rift deepened last year after the EU imposed tariffs of up to 35.3% on Chinese electric vehicles, claiming that Chinese manufacturers benefit from unfair government subsidies. The decision sparked strong objections from Beijing, which retaliated by slapping tariffs of between 30.6% and 39% on the bloc’s brandy imports. The move hit major French cognac producers particularly hard, as they rely heavily on sales in the Chinese market.
China has also filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization, arguing that the EU’s “protectionist” actions amount to “an abuse of trade remedies” and violate WTO rules.
Despite their current differences over Ukraine, Xi knows that the EU and USA will be allies again when WW3 starts and both will target China.
Like typical politicans, the EU want to keep their friends close and their enemies closer.
The EU does not exist any more. It is like the Babel Tower. Too many languages and too many different interests. And no loyalty to other member states.
And it is not a few zionists/ neocons puppets like micron and starmer or merz who will change anything. Their respective population hates them . Revolt is a question of time or bank crash
All governments are indebted as never seen before, thanks to the destructive j€wish high finance used to set that kind if trap.
So, yes the end is near
In China for just under short of a month, two weeks ago. As amazing as ever. I was last there two years back. In that time they have build an ultra modern underwater highway that shaved an hour off my travel time to where I was staying. For some reason everyone thought I was Russian!! Maybe my size and build.
The economy there has slowed somewhat but its still league’s and league’s ahead of here and no doubt, the defunct EU. Not hard to see why their leader wouldn’t want to waste time, on these, conniving losers.
Capture of a head of state under a false flag is not unheard of. On the brink of WWIII, Xi Jinping aint going to fall into that one.
An expendable must be used.
Not enough people are taking jabs, the worlds goverments are finding it difficult to control enite population protests. Looks like an old fashion bullets and bombs war to clean reduce consumers of the earth resources.