Chinese President Xi Jinping warned top EU officials on Thursday that China and Europe should not view each other as rivals or "engage in confrontation" due to their different political systems, in the first in-person China-EU summit for four years.
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BEIJING, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping warned top EU officials on Thursday that China and Europe should not view each other as rivals or “engage in confrontation” due to their different political systems, in the first in-person China-EU summit for four years.
In another blow to EU-China relations, member state Italy officially informed China “in recent days” that it is leaving the Belt and Road Initiative championed by Xi, Italian government sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
A number of EU commissioners have visited Beijing since China lifted pandemic border restrictions this year, including the bloc’s trade and climate chiefs.
Brussels initially left these Chinese firms off its latest Russia sanctions package unveiled last month, European officials said.
The bloc is also concerned about what it considers “imbalanced” economic relations, saying its near 400-billion-euro ($431.7 billion) trade deficit with China reflects restrictions on EU businesses operating there.
Last month, foreign minister Wang told visiting French counterpart Catherine Colonna that the biggest risk is “the uncertainty brought by broad politicisation”, and that “the dependency most in need of reduction is protectionism”.
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
BEIJING, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping warned top EU officials on Thursday that China and Europe should not view each other as rivals or “engage in confrontation” due to their different political systems, in the first in-person China-EU summit for four years.
In another blow to EU-China relations, member state Italy officially informed China “in recent days” that it is leaving the Belt and Road Initiative championed by Xi, Italian government sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
A number of EU commissioners have visited Beijing since China lifted pandemic border restrictions this year, including the bloc’s trade and climate chiefs.
Brussels initially left these Chinese firms off its latest Russia sanctions package unveiled last month, European officials said.
The bloc is also concerned about what it considers “imbalanced” economic relations, saying its near 400-billion-euro ($431.7 billion) trade deficit with China reflects restrictions on EU businesses operating there.
Last month, foreign minister Wang told visiting French counterpart Catherine Colonna that the biggest risk is “the uncertainty brought by broad politicisation”, and that “the dependency most in need of reduction is protectionism”.
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