Xi Jinping declines invitation to EU-China 50th anniversary summit

Chinese president Xi Jinping has declined an invitation to visit Brussels for a summit to mark the 50th anniversary of his country’s diplomatic ties with the EU, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Beijing told EU officials premier Li Qiang would meet presidents of the European Council and the European Commission instead of Xi, the paper said, citing two people familiar with the matter whom it did not identify.

The premier usually attends the summit when it is held in Brussels while the president hosts it in Beijing.

But the EU wants Xi to attend to commemorate half a century of relations between Beijing and the bloc, the newspaper said.

Tensions between Brussels and Beijing have grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the EU accusing China of backing the Kremlin.

Last year, the EU also imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports.

China’s foreign ministry and the EU did not immediately respond to requests by Reuters for comment.

“Informal discussions are ongoing, both about setting the date for the EU-China summit and the level of representation,” an EU official told the newspaper, while the Chinese ministry was quoted as saying it didn’t have any information to provide on the matter.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, and the EU, its third-largest, spent most of last year exchanging barbs over allegations of overcapacity, illegal subsidies and dumping in each other’s markets.

In October, the EU imposed double-digit tariffs on China-made electric vehicles after an anti-subsidy investigation, in addition to its standard car import duty of 10 per cent.

The move drew loud protests from Beijing, which in return raised market entry barriers for certain EU products like brandy.

China also moved forward with a complaint at the World Trade Organisation alleging that the EU move amounted to “an abuse of trade remedies” that violated WTO rules and to “protectionist” measures, according to the mission’s statement.