China ‘resisting calling off’ EU summit in March as coronavirus threatens delay

Leaders’ meeting unlikely to happen on March 31 as planned but China does not want to be the one to cancel, according to source

Postponement could also push back China’s ‘17+1’ summit with Central and Eastern European nations

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Last week’s high-level economic dialogue between the EU and China was postponed. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:09pm, 25 Feb 2020Updated: 10:54pm, 25 Feb 2020

China is scrambling to hold its annual leadership summit with the European Union as scheduled, a source has said, as the coronavirus continues to disrupt its diplomatic and political agenda.

The battle to contain the outbreak led to the postponement of Vice-Premier Liu He’s expected trip to Brussels last week for high-level economic dialogue with the EU, and is a threat to the annual EU-China summit, due to take place in Beijing on March 31.

The economic meeting was already postponed from September when Beijing was prioritising trade talks with the United States. It was to be the first in a series of discussions between the EU and China – also covering climate change, geopolitics and human rights – in the run-up to the annual summit.

Instead, Liu stayed in Beijing and attended two conferences, on Friday and Sunday, as the country tries to resume economic activity while still combating the virus.

A European diplomatic source said that discussions about postponing the summit were under way, but that China was trying hard to hold it as planned and would try to allocate the resources needed to organise it.

It is most likely that the summit will not take place on March 31 but China “never wants to be the one” to announce it is cancelling, the source said.

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