China has abruptly canceled two important diplomatic meetings with the EU this month due to rising tensions over surging Chinese exports to the bloc, the Financial Times reports, according to UNN.
Details
Chinese officials canceled two dialogues in Beijing—a ministerial-level discussion on digital issues and another involving the Deputy Secretary-General of the EU's diplomatic service, Olof Skoog, according to people familiar with the matter.
"Two dialogues scheduled for this month were canceled by the Chinese side at short notice," said one person familiar with the matter.
They said no reasons were provided. However, such tactics are often used by both sides to signal dissatisfaction with each other's policies. Last year, the EU refused to hold a flagship economic meeting with Beijing ahead of a leaders' summit in July due to a lack of progress in numerous trade disputes.
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This year, Beijing has launched a campaign to deter Brussels from adopting new measures aimed at restricting Chinese exports, which grew by 16.4 percent between January and May compared to the previous year, with state media raising the specter of a "trade war."
Beijing, the publication writes, is lobbying fiercely against the EU's proposed Industrial Accelerator Act, which would ban certain Chinese goods from public procurement and restrict takeovers of European companies.
The European Commission also recently outlined an update to its cybersecurity law to exclude Chinese companies like Huawei from telecommunications networks and solar energy systems.
Adding to Beijing's concerns, the EU has blocked state funding for imported inverters used to manage solar panel installations and other energy technologies—products dominated by China. Last month, the European Commission called the growing trade deficit, which now stands at €1 billion per day, "unsustainable" and threatened new tariffs on Chinese goods to protect the bloc's rapidly eroding industrial base, with sectors like the automotive industry under particular pressure. In June, it also launched three anti-dumping investigations.
"Beijing does not want a trade war with the EU, but it will take decisive countermeasures if the EU continues to attack Chinese companies or goods," said a commentary from China's state news agency Xinhua.
"The EU should not and cannot afford to wage a 'trade war with China'," stated the Global Times, a nationalist mouthpiece of the Communist Party.
Beijing appears to be trying to send a warning to EU leaders ahead of the European Council summit in Brussels next week. Leaders at the summit will consider tougher policies toward China, although the agenda only states they will discuss "competitiveness and global economic challenges."
Bart De Wever, the Prime Minister of Belgium, mocked this approach in a speech on Tuesday. "They called it geo-economic imbalances, simply without calling China by name, because we are so afraid that we don't even dare to do so," he said.
EU officials say Beijing is lobbying member states directly to try to prevent them from forming a common approach. The Global Times reported that Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao was also expected to visit Europe in late June for talks.
At the same time, Beijing is passing laws that make the operating environment in China—which companies say is already difficult—even more strained.
In April, Beijing introduced new regulations, known as Orders 834 and 835, to protect China's supply chain security and counter attempts by foreign states to exercise extraterritorial control over Chinese companies, for example, through sanctions.
Beijing has also passed a new law on direct investment abroad, which includes countermeasures against foreign restrictions that it claims discriminate against Chinese companies. It also strictly regulates Chinese investment abroad, particularly those involving the transfer of technology or data.
The European Commission stated that the canceled meetings "are in the process of being rescheduled."
"Engagement and dialogue between the EU and China continue at several levels," the statement said, referring to a June 9 meeting in Brussels between Director-General for Trade Ditte Juul Jørgensen and China's Vice Minister of Commerce Ling Ji.
Jørgensen and Ling exchanged views and held "in-depth discussions, in particular to help prepare for other upcoming EU-China meetings," the European Commission statement said.
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