The 23rd China-EU Summit on April 1, 2022. Source: the European Council.

Editor’s Note:  The return of the China-EU summit after nearly two years is undoubtedly the most high-profile event between the two, surely with great global significance. The context of this summit is special – the war in Ukraine, COVID-19, and the struggling global economy are crises that China and Europe need to face; bilaterally, China and the EU have their own challenges and difficulties. Now, since the curtain has come down, what to make of the significant event? 

The long-awaited 23rd China-EU Summit took place on Friday. During the meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping met by video with the President of the European Council Michel and the European Commission President von der Leyen. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang co-chaired the summit with Michel and von der Leyen by video link.

After the summit, Beijing and Brussels published their own readouts. China’s readout of President Xi’s meeting can be found here and Premier Li’s here, while President Michel and President von der Leyen held a 25-minute press conference and jointly issued a press release. These documents are key for interpreting the outcomes of the summit as well as understanding their differences.

At the moment, we identified five major features of the summit.

First, the talks were "open and frank,” a consensus of leaders from both sides. The summit came at a time when Beijing and Brussels desperately need to resume their dialogue since their relations soured after sanctions in March 2021, and the multiple global crises have become ever more pressing.  

Michel tweeted that the summit was a "timely and needed opportunity for dialogue." At the press conference, the EU leaders added several labels to the summit, including: "not business as usual," "war-time summit." President Von der Leyen referred to the "open and frank" nature of the meeting, telling journalists that it was very important and that "we explained our position and what it means to have a war on European soil".

She said that China now focuses very much on the Omicron as well as creating jobs, but that Brussels wants to give a whole view of the war in Ukraine in the global security architecture…so the exchange of views was of “utmost” importance for the EU.

Second, the two sides agreed to continue their economic, green and digital high-level dialogue. Premier Li suggested that the two sides rely on existing dialogue mechanisms to strengthen policy coordination such as epidemic prevention and control, addressing climate change, and the digital economy.

These topics were not entirely new, but somewhat halted or slowed. In September 2020, China and the EU announced to set up green and digital partnerships. Their high-level dialogues on the environment and climate went on twice in 2021, and the two sides worked together during COP26; they launched the first high-level digital dialogue in September 2020 but have since put it on hold. Brussels said on Friday that the summit gave the green light to the resumption of green and digital high-level talks.

Some background information: there are more than 70 dialogue mechanisms between China and the EU in various fields such as politics, economy and trade, security, culture, society, innovation, maritime, environmental protection, cybersecurity, etc.

On Thursday, China and the EU had their 10th energy dialogue, which is ministry-level.

Thirdly, energy, food security and supply chain stability have become new urgent topics.  

Premier Li called on the two sides to jointly maintain ”energy, food security, stability of supply and industrial chains,"  which are closely related to the war in Ukraine. The energy crisis and high energy prices in Europe are closely intertwined with EU sanctions against Russia and Russian counter-measures.

As to food security, with 19% of global barley, 14% of wheat, and 4% of maize coming from Russia and Ukraine, Russia is also a major global producer of fertiliser. Currently, about 50 countries rely on imports from Russia and Ukraine to ensure that 30% or more of their wheat supply, for these countries, the food security situation is particularly serious.

The "bottleneck" headache has already haunted the global industry and supply chain while the war further worsens it.The EU and China discussed the impact of the war in Ukraine on the world economy, food and energy security, said the EU, adding that they agreed to continue cooperation on climate change and energy transition in order to address pressing global challenges.

Fourthly, and importantly for the business community, both China and the EU talked about the business environment. Xi said that "European enterprises are welcome to invest in China, and we hope that the European side will provide a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese enterprises to invest and develop in Europe."

Separately, Li said that reform and opening-up is China's basic state policy, China will continue to build a market-oriented, rule of law, international business environment, treating all types of enterprises equally.

He also stressed: “We hope that China and the EU will adhere to two-way openness, continuously expand market access, maintain fair competition, and promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. We also hope that the European side will provide a sound business environment for Chinese enterprises to invest and develop in the EU."

The Chinese side talked about the opening of its own market and the requirements of the business environment for the European side; in contrast, Brussels was more of a "one-way" street, only mentioning Chinese market access and investment environment and ensuring "balanced" economic and trade relations.

According to the EU, the leaders mandated the China-EU High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue to be held before the summer to discuss concrete measures that should be taken to facilitate progress in this area. In addition, the two sides also agreed to expand the China-EU GI agreement in the near future.

Also key is what Chinese President Xi said: “The two sides need to seek greater synergy between their development strategies and explore more complementarity between China’s new development philosophy and paradigm and the EU’s trade policy for open strategic autonomy.”

China mentions a lot of the EU’s "strategic autonomy," but it was probably the first time for the Chinese leader to specifically mention the EU’s "open strategic autonomy," a catchphrase from the commission’s DG Trade.

It is intriguing, or strategically witty, for Beijing to think of seeking synergy with Brussels’ "open strategic autonomy," which consists of three dimensions: cooperation, unilateral trade tools, and joint efforts with "like-minded" partners. The second and the third are usually viewed as confrontational tactics against China. 

 Last but not least, on the Ukrainian crisis. The EU is eager to convey the urgency of the Ukrainian crisis to Europeans and the rest of the world, as well as to make demands on China - for example, it wants China to play a more active role and exert influence, in the hopes that China will not interfere with the effectiveness of EU-imposed massive sanctions against Russia.

It's worth quoting Chinese President Xi's four-point remarks on this critical issue:

First, promoting peace talks. Second, preventing a humanitarian crisis on a bigger scale. Third, fostering lasting peace in Europe and the Eurasian continent. Fourth, preventing the regional conflict from magnifying. 

“China supports the EU’s efforts toward a political settlement of the Ukraine issue, and has been encouraging peace talks in its own way,” Xi said.

The EU and China hold energy dialogue ahead of Summit

According to China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), on March 31, Administrator of the National Energy Administration Zhang Jianhua, co-chaired the 10th China-EU Energy Dialogue with EU Energy Commissioner Simson via video in Beijing.

Zhang said that China and Europe, as an important global stability and constructive force, have extensive common interests and a deep foundation of cooperation in the energy field. In recent years, both sides have made efforts to promote green and low-carbon energy development, contributing to global energy transformation and economic recovery. Under the new situation, China is willing to uphold the principle of mutual benefit and win-win, strengthen communication and coordination with the European side on energy security, expand exchanges and cooperation on energy transformation, and enhance cooperation on technological innovation, so as to inject positive energy into the stability of the global energy market and green energy development.

Simson said that the EU attaches great importance to green development cooperation with China and is willing to take this dialogue as an opportunity to actively expand cooperation with China in the energy sector and promote more pragmatic results.

During the dialogue, the two sides exchanged views on energy security, global energy transition, power market and energy reform and international cooperation in energy, listened to the progress report of China-EU Energy Technology Innovation Cooperation Platform and China-EU Energy Cooperation Platform, and reached consensus on the next step of cooperation focus and direction.

China-EU Agri-food Trade Seminar

According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Yu Jianhua, international trade negotiator and vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce, delivered a video message at the opening ceremony of the China-EU Agri-food Trade Seminar on March 30. Yu said that trade in agricultural products is a key area of cooperation between China and Europe, and both sides should uphold the principle of mutual openness and mutual benefit, expand the scale of trade and enhance the level of cooperation, while strengthening multilateral coordination and cooperation to jointly create a favorable environment for trade in agricultural products.

The seminar was held on the line of the European Commission's Directorate General for Agriculture, with the participation of representatives from government departments, industry associations and enterprises from both China and Europe.

According to the European Commission, this month marking one year since the EU and China bilateral agreement to protect 96 European Geographical Indications (GI) in China and 100 Chinese GI in the EU against imitations and usurpation came into effect, this interactive seminar will take a deep dive into the reciprocal trade benefits.

What experts are talking

On March 29, the China Institute of International Studies published an article Timely Summit at Critical Juncture. As the highest-level dialogue mechanism between China and European Union institutions, the summit has been instrumental for setting the tone of China-Europe relations and bringing about cooperation vistas. This year’s summit will be more important than ever, as it is held at a critical juncture and a lot of things are at stake. The summit is first and foremost an effort from both sides to reset and relaunch China-EU relations after unusual setbacks last year.

On March 30, the Research Group on China-EU Relations of Institution of European Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released a research report entitled "Building China-EU Relations for the Future Together", which pointed out that China-EU relations are one of the most important bilateral relations for each other. Against the backdrop of the current global challenges such as the new pneumonia epidemic, climate change, loss of biodiversity, regional conflicts and poverty, strengthening coordination and cooperation between China and Europe and maintaining stable development of relations are crucial to the economic and social recovery and prosperity of both sides in the post-epidemic era, as well as to global peace and stability. Restoring and maintaining the momentum of stable development of China-EU relations is in the common interest of both sides and the whole world.

In the face of the current complex bilateral relations and global challenges, it is necessary for China and Europe to uphold the principles of mutual respect and seeking common ground while reserving differences in the new context and international environment, actively promote the transformation of cooperation potential into reality, objectively look at the areas of competition between the two sides, and lay the foundation for the sustainable, stable and healthy development of China-EU relations in the future.