In top talks between China and EU, it is mainly about Russia
Climate change, biodiversity, trade: these are on the agenda at today’s EU-China summit. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine will dominate the and among European Union leaders.
Brussels wants to use a virtual summit to persuade people to take responsibility in the conflict, but does not have high expectations. Beijing sees the summit mainly as an opportunity to keep the difficult relationship, further tested by the war in Ukraine, on track.
“The summit comes at a very important time,” said Wang Huiyao. He heads the Center for China and Globalization, a think tank in Beijing. “An opportunity to improve relations and build consensus on how to deal with the crisis in Ukraine,” he says from his office in the metropolitan business district.
Where the EU supports the attack against the Kremlin and the Ukraine with arms supplies, China can still officially name it in the name. In Brussels, this is interpreted as implicit support for Putin’s war.
Do more to stop war
Brussels top official that China must do more to stop the war in Ukraine. The warm ties between Beijing and Moscow arouse suspicion in Brussels. “China itself has been hit by the West. From America, from the EU and NATO. Russian concerns are shared in that area,” explains Wang. Like the Chinese ruler, he points to the expansion of the NATO alliance as a provoking factor in the conflict. China sees like-minded people in Russia in the fight against the West, and against the US in particular.
“Brussels and European capitals had hoped that China would curtail its support for Russia after the invasion of Ukraine,” said Janka Oertel of the European Council on Foreign Relations research institute. “But the hope that China could offer in the conflict of war has faded. That makes EU-China relations only to buy.”
Frustration in Brussels, especially about China, can be supported against Russia. That undermines the strength of EU sanctions against Moscow, is the idea in Brussels. “China does not want to push the global economy, which is already under pressure from the pandemic, into recession,” Wang explained.