Chinese envoy to EU denies committing to halt sanctions-busting shipments to Russia
- Beijing ‘did not commit [to] anything … that’s the bottom line’, Ambassador Fu Cong says
- EU sources say commitment on re-exports was expected after Brussels dropped five Chinese entities from sanction list
China has not committed to stopping its companies from helping Russian military buyers breach EU sanctions, its top envoy to the bloc said on Friday.
EU sources said they made that decision following a diplomatic commitment from Fu to exert pressure on the firms to stop re-exporting banned goods to the Russian war machine.
But the diplomat told the Post and two other media outlets in an interview in Brussels that “the Chinese government did not commit [to] anything … that’s the bottom line”.
02:38
Berlin stops Chinese companies from investing in German chip makers over security concerns
“We understand the concerns of the EU in terms of trying to prevent the circumvention of the sanctions, meaning that some of the items from the European market might be re-exported to Russia and so … according to their view, that needs to be resolved,” Fu said. “We’ll see what happens in the future.”
EU ambassadors will convene on Monday and are expected to green-light the eleventh sanctions package on Monday, with the Chinese companies removed.
On Wednesday two EU diplomats said that the move was a test of whether Beijing was acting in good faith. Speaking on Friday, a diplomat said Fu’s latest words were “surprising to say the least”.
Fu said it was “good news” that the companies had been taken off, but refused to be drawn on what his government would do to ensure the trade was halted.
China ‘firmly opposes’ possible German ban of Huawei, ZTE 5G equipment
“We’re glad that the Chinese companies have been removed from the list, and it shows that dialogue can work,” said Fu, speaking on the sidelines of a Chinese business forum in the Belgian capital.
Eight companies based in mainland China and Hong Kong were on a draft list of entities accused of reselling European chips and microelectronics that can be used in high-grade weaponry, such as cruise missiles. Three remain on the list, but they were found to be effectively Russian entities operating out of Hong Kong, EU sources said.
The interview comes at a tumultuous time for EU-China relations. On Thursday, the European Commission told member states they should ban Huawei and ZTE from their 5G networks – the first time the bloc’s secretariat has gone after the Chinese telecoms giants by name.
Fu said that ban was “purely out of some ideological and geopolitical considerations by the United States, and I’m sorry to see that European governments have yielded to the US pressure”.
Next Tuesday, commission chief Ursula von der Leyen’s flagship economic security strategy will be unveiled in proposal form. It will not name China directly, but is expected to lay out high-level ways of “de-risking” Europe’s ties with the world’s second largest economy.
“The desire of the EU governments for a resilient supply chain” was understandable, Fu said, and warned against “conflating economic security with national security”.
He called the potential for an EU-wide ban on China’s two blue-chip telcos “quite concerning, because this might be a foretaste of a what de-risking may really entail”.
“We have been saying that the EU side needs to clarify what they mean by de-risking. And here, this is a concrete example of using fabricated excuses to drive the Chinese companies out of the European market, and this is quite concerning really,” Fu said, adding that there was “no evidence” that the companies provided a security risk.
Germany eyes ‘systemic rival’ China in first-ever national security strategy
On Thursday, EU industry chief Thierry Breton directly linked the move to wean the bloc off dependencies on China and Russia for energy and raw minerals with 5G.
“We eliminated our dependencies in other critical sectors, for example, on energy, in record time when many thought at that time it was impossible,” Breton said. “The situation with 5G should be no different. We cannot afford to maintain critical dependencies that could become a weapon against our interests.”
Fu said Beijing would “safeguard to the best of our ability the legitimate interests of the Chinese companies” but would not “predict any counter actions from our side”.
Brussels is also looking at ways to restrict EU companies from investing in some hi-tech sectors of the Chinese economy, such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and semiconductors.
Fu said it was “too early to talk about retaliating”, but said he was “following the discussion on this issue very closely, with some concern”.
