An apparent move by a Chinese delegation last year to backtrack on Beijing’s sanctions on a Berlin-based think tank was undermined when their visit to Europe clashed with the announcement that EU restrictions on China would be renewed. Numerous sources said a former Chinese ambassador met representatives of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics) in November, when a delegation of former government officials visited Europe. Neither the Chinese embassy in Germany nor Merics has officially confirmed the meeting, but multiple people with knowledge of the event said Beijing’s sanctions against the think tank had been discussed. The Chinese delegation is understood to have been part of a mission led by Wu Hongbo, Beijing’s special representative on Europe, in late November. Official announcements recorded Wu’s meetings with European counterparts during the week-long visits to Benelux and Iceland. Two people briefed on the meeting with Merics said it appeared Beijing had wanted to step back from its sanctions on the think tank – imposed last year in a tit-for-tat sanctioning blitz between China, the US, EU, Britain and Canada over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang . “They [the Chinese side] thought they could do something with the sanctions, due to their expiration in March,” said one source, who asked for anonymity because of the closed-door nature of the meeting. “But they came too late.” While describing the meeting as “long” and “very encouraging”, the source said the lack of practical progress in resetting the relationship reflected how little the Chinese side understands the workings of the EU system. Ambassadors from the EU member states agreed in the last week of November that sanctions against four Chinese officials and one Chinese entity should be renewed for at least another year from March 2022. Days later, the Council of the EU said existing sanctions would continue until December 8 next year. EU to renew sanctions on Chinese officials for alleged Xinjiang abuses A Beijing-based researcher with a government-affiliated institute on China-EU relations said he did not think Beijing was under any illusion that the delegation’s meetings would transform the current relationship. “Since there was no leadership-level meeting, this would be the best way to understand what each other really thinks,” said the researcher, who also had knowledge of the delegation’s meeting with Merics. The inclusion of a high-level former diplomat showed Beijing expected genuine conversations to give a better understanding of the current situation, the researcher said. “While there may not be immediate effects from these meetings, the gesture shows China is still eager to improve the relationship in the long-run.” As China-EU ties regress, Brussels’ envoy asks: are we back in the Mao era? However, Thorsten Benner from the Berlin-based Global Public Policy Institute said he would not read the meeting or the overall mission of the visit as an olive branch to Germany. “Meeting with Merics is a grudging acknowledgement on the part of Beijing that they utterly failed with their goal of making Merics irrelevant … Both emissaries made a genuine effort to improve ties but without putting anything genuine on the table,” he said. “Without Beijing dialling back its aggressive stance significantly, there won’t be any breakthroughs in terms of warming EU-China relations next year.” Beijing has made a concerted effort to engage the new German government, in a move widely seen as an effort to get Berlin on board a push to ratify the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) between China and the EU. The European Parliament agreed in May to halt ratification of the deal – agreed in December 2020 after seven years of negotiations – until Beijing lifted its sanctions on EU politicians. According to Benner, even if China was able to convince the new German government to make another push for ratifying CAI this push would go nowhere at the moment given there is still strong opposition at European level. Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed relations with Berlin as the “bellwether” in navigating China’s overall cooperation with Europe, during his first phone call with incoming German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Scholz’s office released a much shorter readout of the call compared to the page-long statement from the Chinese foreign ministry. Xi moves to cement China-Germany ties in first phone call with Scholz Research fellow Philippe Le Corre, who focuses on China-Europe relations at the Harvard Kennedy School, said it made sense for China to want to re-engage with think tanks and through unofficial meetings as it tried to relaunch its image in the West. “It will be difficult, but not impossible. As for the EU, it is true that the Merics question was one of the many aspects of current EU-China tensions. Talking is always good but a vast majority of people in Europe still believe China overreacted … by sanctioning European think tanks,” he said, adding that there was a lack of trust in the relationship. “I think a visit by a very senior Chinese leader to Europe might help, but there is a real clash of systems at the moment. The European Parliament in particular is not willing to compromise, nor is the Chinese leadership.” Le Corre said any breakthrough could be expected to happen after the Winter Olympics in February, or even beyond the next Chinese Communist Party Congress in the autumn. China-EU summit ‘delayed’ as trade and human rights disputes fester Meanwhile, as previously reported by the South China Morning Post, the annual China-EU summit – initially planned for the end of this year – was now likely to be delayed until January because of disagreements over human rights, economics and trade. Tensions are also growing between China and EU member state Lithuania after the self-ruled island of Taiwan – which Beijing regards as part of its territory – opened a de facto embassy in Vilnius. Beijing has downgraded its diplomatic ties with Lithuania and Vilnius said it had closed its embassy in Beijing and pulled all its diplomats out of the country, adding pressure to the EU’s consideration of whether to take a stronger position on China. Dietmar Schweisgut, who was the European Union’s ambassador to China until 2018, said he did not expect a warming of the bilateral relationship any time soon. “I doubt that Beijing is willing to move on the subject of sanctions which makes it virtually impossible for the European Parliament to ratify the [CAI],” said Schweisgut, currently secretary general for the intergovernmental Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe. “The way China puts pressure on Lithuania in my view has destroyed any goodwill which might have been created by some positive sounding messages,” he said. “The EU is likely to strengthen its economic toolbox to make it less vulnerable and give it more autonomy. This will probably not lead to warmer relations, but allow for a realistic policy framework to deal with one of the most important relationships.”