On the eve of a high-level summit in Beijing, China said Wednesday that the European Union’s export policies toward Beijing “do not make sense.”
“If the EU imposes severe restrictions on the export of high-tech products to China on the one hand, and hopes to significantly increase exports to China on the other, I’m afraid it doesn’t make sense,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union’s chief, as well as top EU diplomat Josep Borrell and European Council President Charles Michel, will be in Beijing on Thursday for the EU-China meeting.
It will be the first face-to-face encounter between leaders in Brussels and Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang since 2019, and trade will be a prominent topic of discussion.
Von der Leyen previously told AFP that “European leaders will not tolerate an imbalance in the trade relationship over time.”
“But we prefer to have negotiated solutions,” she added.
Wang on Wednesday told a regular press conference that “China is a trustworthy and indispensable partner of the EU”.
“Properly handling differences through dialogue and consultations is an important thing to go through for the development of China-EU relations,” he said.
“We hope that the European side will work with China to meet each other halfway, create a positive atmosphere for the successful holding of the China-EU leaders’ meeting, and make joint efforts for the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations,” he added.