UN chief advises EU against isolating Beijing as European states discuss China, Ukraine and trade

Antonio Guterres advises China is willing to engage with EU, despite worsening relations
‘It’s important to know first hand what [Xi’s] position is on peace in Ukraine,’ says Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez, who confirmed he will visit Beijing next week

China-EU relations

Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels

Published: 3:00pm, 24 Mar 2023

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The head of the United Nations asked European Union leaders on Thursday not to isolate China, saying that such a strategy could risk Beijing going completely in its own direction.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the EU that China was willing to engage with it, according to an EU official familiar with the discussion, despite worsening relations over recent years.

Bilateral ties have frayed amid widespread concerns about China’s human rights record, its economic policies and its rising assertiveness on geopolitical matters.

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Guterres referenced an ongoing debate in European capitals about how to cut dependency on the Chinese economy – an issue that has engendered a suite of new legislation in Brussels.

European leaders frequently cite the need to reduce their buying of China’s key commodity exports.

At the Davos Forum in January, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid out concerns about China “openly encouraging energy-intensive companies in Europe and elsewhere to relocate all or part of their production”.

“China heavily subsidises its industry and restricts access to its market for EU companies. We will still need to work and trade with China – especially when it comes to this transition. So, we need to focus on de-risking rather than decoupling,” von der Leyen said.

Guterres tried to assure the 27 leaders that Beijing had a positive view of Europe and wished to maintain good relations – a message commonly espoused by Chinese officials themselves.

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The UN chief was touting collaboration on climate change – on which he has insisted the West must work with China.

The exchange came at the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday. China was not on the official agenda for the event but it provided plenty of talking points.

On arriving at the summit, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez confirmed he would travel to Beijing next week at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping to mark 50 years of bilateral relations.

“I think it’s important to know first hand what his position is on peace in Ukraine, and to tell him that it is the Ukrainians themselves who will lay down the conditions for the beginning of this peace, when it arrives,” Sanchez said.

Last July, the South China Morning Post reported that Sanchez had been invited to Beijing, along with his counterparts from Germany, France and Italy. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited last year, with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni set to follow in April.

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell is expected to visit Beijing in mid-April en route to the G7 foreign ministers summit in Japan, diplomatic sources said.

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After the European Council summit, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told reporters he was “not against the fact that governments go to China, as long as the message is in line with the sort of agenda that we have”.

“We need to continue to have a relationship with China. Having a relationship means that you need to talk. And that means talking about things you agree but also talking about the things you don’t agree,” De Croo said.

Earlier on Thursday, multiple national leaders expressed concerns about China’s relationship with Russia, particularly Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Moscow this week.

Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Karins said Xi’s visit to Russia was “an eye opener for Europe”, placing a question mark over Beijing’s role as a potential peacemaker in Ukraine.

At a closed-door conversation involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, some leaders fretted about the need to continue exerting influence on China to not become militarily involved in the conflict that was launched by a Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year.

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Macron warned that the EU needed to exert “maximum effort to ensure China is not supporting Russia’s efforts to wage war”, according to a diplomat privy to the talks.

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said that while China was “not neutral”, neither was it “against” Europe. He said the EU needed to be able to sit down with China, and not “push them towards Russia”.

Later, the discussion turned to trade, where China also featured heavily. However an EU official said there were no attempts to “resurrect” the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) – a bilateral pact that has been in the “deep freeze” since the EU and China exchanged sanctions in March 2021.

Instead, it featured as part of a broader debate on free-trade deals. Some capitals have grown frustrated at the EU’s sluggishness in finalising deals, with pacts such as the CAI and a trade agreement with Mercosur states – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – languishing in limbo amid an inability to secure political backing.