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Politico can reveal that China’s top diplomat will visit Germany and Belgium next month in a bid to reset ties with skeptical Europe.
Wang Yi will attend the Munich security conference and visit the headquarters of the European Union, according to three diplomats with knowledge of his plans, although one diplomat said the exact dates of the Brussels trip have yet to be decided. The visit represents an opportunity to address tensions in relations between China and Europe, amid Beijing’s continued support for Moscow despite Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
are wang promoted From the foreign minister to the 24-member Politburo, the ruling body of the Communist Party, to oversee foreign affairs. He will be the highest-level official to visit Europe since the Communist Party Congress in October – which formalized the norm-breaking continuation of Xi Jinping at the helm of the world’s second-biggest economy – as well as China’s restrictions amid the pandemic The measures were quickly terminated. this year.
As its main strategic rival to the US, China is looking at ways to restore warm relations with Europe through diplomatic engagement. german chancellor olaf scholz and President of the European Council charles mitchell visited Beijing in November and December to elicit an expression of Xi’s disapproval of Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine.
she too met leaders of Italy, the Netherlands and Spain during the G20 summit in November. French President Emmanuel Macron said he would visit China early this year.
One diplomat said, “China has been heating up Europe in recent weeks.”
The European Foreign Action Service, the diplomatic arm of the European Union, did not respond to a request for comment. Asked for comment on Wang’s plans, the Chinese mission to the European Union did not respond.
Wang’s visit comes at a time when the EU is trying to increase its direct contact with Beijing’s byzantine bureaucracy.
When former foreign minister Yang Jiechi was promoted to the party’s diplomacy boss, he stopped working with the EU, leaving it to the then-new minister Wang, while she focused mainly on US-China relations. concentrated.
There are also signs of deepening contacts between Beijing and Washington, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken scheduled to visit Beijing earlier this year.expand cooperation,
Despite Beijing’s warnings over Moscow’s nuclear threats, Chinese and Russian leaders have united to form an alternative alliance to the Western world order. In his most recent call with Putin on December 30, Xi hailed a “more mature and resilient” Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Russia, noting a “record high” for bilateral trade in the first 11 months of last year.
On the other hand, Chinese diplomats have tried to downplay the importance of Beijing’s ties with Moscow, which peaked just weeks before the Russian invasion when Xi and Putin declared a “no borders” partnership. . Fu Kang, the new Chinese ambassador to the European Union, said that “people shouldn’t read too much” into such labels as “no limit”, adding that Beijing could describe relations with the EU in similar terms.
Several officials who met with Fu, who started his job a month ago, said he was very keen to see how to revive the stalled ratification process on the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investments. The deal, pushed vigorously by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Commission’s trade department, comes in response to the EU sanctioning Chinese officials involved in suppressing Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang by the European Parliament. has been made “stable” after approving MPs.