Editor's Note: Greetings! This week, China announced a trial visa-free policy for five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain) and Malaysia, beginning December 1, 2023, through November 30, 2024, in an effort to further facilitate bilateral exchanges. Meanwhile, Eurostat's data showed that around one million Chinese citizens were granted residence permits in 2022. Enjoy your read and have a great weekend!

▶︎ Focus

China and the EU are poised at a critical crossroads as they gear up for their first in-person summit in four years, slated for December 7-8.

This summit marks an opportune moment to address fresh challenges amidst evolving geopolitical landscapes and diverging policy stances, underscoring a pivotal juncture in the Sino-EU relationship.

Recent years have witnessed fluctuations in the dynamics between China and the EU. Amidst this period of heightened turbulence, the profound depth of interaction between China and Europe might have been overshadowed. However, this week's official release of the latest EU data sheds an illuminating light on this very dynamic.

Eurostat, the bloc's statistical authority, reveals that over a million residence permits were granted to Chinese citizens in 2022. Among the EU Member States, Italy takes the lead in issuing these permits, granting around 310,000 (nearly 30% of the total). Spain follows closely, with approximately 240,000 permits (23.3%), and France with roughly 120,000 permits (11.6%).

The reasons behind granting these residence permits to Chinese nationals vary, encompassing family reunification, educational pursuits, employment opportunities, refugee status, and other categories. Notably, family-related permits constitute the largest segment at 34.5%, followed by employment at 26.2% and education at 8.4%. Refugee status and subsidiary protection account for 2.8%, while other reasons cover 28.1% of the permits issued.

Moreover, Eurostat's revelation of international trade and economic data for the initial three quarters of this year highlights China's sustained position as the EU's primary import source, albeit with a discernible decrease in its share.

Correspondingly, China retains its status as the third-largest export market for the EU, though experiencing a slight dip in proportion. Eurostat attributes this shift to the escalating geopolitical landscape, citing impactful events such as the Ukraine crisis influencing the global trade dynamics.

▶︎ Hot Topics

>>Xi's special representative to attend World Climate Action Summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping's Special Representative, Ding Xuexiang, will be in the United Arab Emirates for the World Climate Action Summit from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, a foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Friday.

The trip will be made at the invitation of President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, spokesperson Mao Ning said.

Ding is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council.

>>China rejects EU's allegations of EV overcapacity export: ambassador

Chinese Ambassador to the EU Fu Cong on Thursday dismissed a recent claim that China is exporting its overcapacity of electric vehicles (EV) to the European market, Xinhua reported.

"I want to emphasize the fact that the Chinese companies are selling cars in Europe does not by itself signify an overcapacity," the ambassador said during the Europe-China Forum held here by Friends of Europe, a Brussels-based non-profit think tank for EU policy.

Some 300 participants, including policymakers, businessmen and researchers, attended the event.

>>China tries out unilateral visa-free policy for six countries

China has decided to implement a unilateral visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia on a trial basis, according to the statement published on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's social media account on 24th.

From Dec. 1, 2023 to Nov. 30, 2024, holders of ordinary passports from the above six countries may enter China visa-free for business, tourism, visiting relatives and friends and transit for no more than 15 days, the online statement said. People from these six countries who do not meet the visa exemption requirements still need to obtain a visa before entering China, the statement said.

>>Germany's economy shrinks slightly in the third quarter

According to Reuters, Germany's economy shrank slightly in the third quarter compared with the previous three months, data from its statistics office showed on 24th. The figure confirmed an initial estimate, published in late October, that saw Europe's largest economy shrink by 0.1%. "After the weak economic development seen in the first half of 2023, the German economy began the second half of the year with a slight drop in performance," said Ruth Brand, president of the statistics office. Germany has been among the weakest economies in Europe this year as high energy costs, weak global orders and higher interest rates have taken their toll.

>>EC launches first European Hydrogen Bank auction

The European Commission on Thursday launched the first auction under the European Hydrogen Bank to support the production of renewable hydrogen in Europe, with an initial €800 million of emissions trading revenues, channeled through the Innovation Fund. Producers of renewable hydrogen can bid for support in the form of a fixed premium per kilogram of hydrogen produced.

>>EC opens €4 billion call for proposals for net-zero technologies

The European Commission on Thursday opened the Innovation Fund's 2023 call for proposals with a record budget of €4 billion to support the deployment of innovative decarbonisation technologies. The call is funded by revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), underlining the importance of carbon pricing for the green transition. The Commission has increased the overall funds available, and doubled the budget allocated for cleantech manufacturing projects compared to the previous call. €1.4 billion are available to strengthen industrial manufacturing capacity, technology leadership, and supply chain resilience in Europe.

>>Chinese battery giant CATL signs deal with European carmaker Stellantis NV

According to the Global Times, Chinese lithium-ion battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), together with Stellantis NV, a carmaker based in the Netherlands, announced on 21th the signing of a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The deal mirrors the need for stronger cooperation between European carmakers and Chinese new energy firms, despite the growing protectionism in some EU countries in the field. The agreement means that CATL will supply lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells and modules to power the Dutch company's electric vehicle production in Europe, another milestone for the Chinese New Energy Vehicle (NEV) battery maker to access the wider European market.

▶︎ What are experts talking about？

The Rule of Law Connotation and Institutional Value of the World Bank's New Business Environment Indicators

Source: Journal of China University of Political Science and Law

Author: Shuguang Li

The World Bank will officially launch the new Doing Business Indicators Programme in 2023, which will bring significant innovations in terms of assessment objectives, methodology and thematic content, which will be another important opportunity for China to improve its business environment through assessment. At present, the new indicator project is still in the initial stage of official implementation, and the first thing to do is to grasp the core issues of the new indicator, such as the connotation of the rule of law, the evaluation system, and the logic of the system, and to conduct a scientific study of the implementation methodology in order to prepare for a new round of evaluation of the indicator.

In the future, it is necessary to focus on the rule system, public services and effectiveness, etc., to review the weak links in the existing rule of law system of China's business environment, and then through the amendment of the law against the world's best practices, to help the scientific development of the rules and effective implementation. In this way, it will help to continuously improve the level of the rule of law in China's business environment, promote the high-quality development of the economy, and promote the optimisation and improvement of the quality of governmental public services.

Biden-Xi Dialogue Instrumental for a Successful EU-China Summit in Beijing

Source: Bruegel Think Tank

Author: Alicia García-Herrero

While China-U.S. summit may not have been a game changer in terms of concrete measures announced, it has achieved two goals. First, it has mitigated immediate security tensions between the two superpowers. Second, China's more cooperative attitude towards the US is most likely related to the mounting domestic pressure caused by a weakening economy, which should help the EU in its negotiations at the upcoming summit.

Please note: the English version of this issue is slightly different from our Chinese one. The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the official position of the CCCEU.

END