Chinese foreign minister sees only limited diplomatic gains from European trip

Wrapping up his first overseas trip during the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called on Europe to resist US efforts to decouple economically from China and to renounce the unilateralism promoted by US President Donald Trump.

But Wang made only limited diplomatic gains in talks that were weighed down by “promise fatigue”, analysts said. He secured a meeting in France with President Emmanuel Macron, but in Germany there was no public event with Chancellor Angela Merkel or any officials from her Christian Democratic Union party.

As the US withdraws from the World Health Organisation – which, it says, enabled China’s mishandling of the coronavirus – Wang promoted China as a multilateral player during his eight-day trip, which also included Italy, the Netherlands and the non-European Union nation of Norway.

Wang also called on Europe to work together in reviving the economy after the pandemic, drawing attention to the fast-rebounding official economic figures released by China, the world’s second biggest economy.

02:56

Germany presses China on Hong Kong security law, seeks access to Uygurs in Xinjiang

Germany presses China on Hong Kong security law, seeks access to Uygurs in Xinjiang

Noah Barkin, an EU-China specialist at Rhodium Group, a policy research firm, noted the growing sense of “promise fatigue” among European governments, despite frequent Chinese references to multilateralism.