European Union and Chinese leaders are set to hold a virtual summit on April 1 after repeated delays, senior EU diplomats told POLITICO.
The meeting is widely seen as a high-stakes diplomatic effort to calm the recently escalating trade and geopolitical tensions between the two, particularly over Lithuania. It will also be held against the background of China’s deepening ties with Russia, which is currently posing the biggest security threat to Europe since the end of the Cold War over what the West says is a likely Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang will join the meeting with Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, presidents of the European Council and European Commission, respectively, according to one of the diplomats.
Li is widely expected to step down after the Communist Party reshuffle in the fall, while Xi will in all probability be staying on.
Many in the EU institutions have raised concern about too much focus on systemic rivalry with China in recent months, hoping to give the two other elements in EU-China relations — partnership and economic competition — more attention.
While preparations for the agenda have only just begun, there is little doubt that the two sides will have to address what the EU sees as Beijing’s coercive measures against one of its member countries, Lithuania, an issue that the EU has recently taken to the World Trade Organization against China. Lithuania has also withdrawn all diplomats from Beijing, after China reacted furiously to the opening of Taiwan’s new diplomatic office in Vilnius.
