The high representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy and Defense, Josep Borrell, landed in China this Thursday with an unusual number of open fronts: to the already strained relationship between Brussels and Beijing, marked by the European risk reduction strategy against to the Asian giant and the differences surrounding the war in Ukraine, is now added to the outbreak of the conflict between Israel and Gaza, which threatens to become another divisive wall in the polarized theater of world geopolitics. The head of European diplomacy is expected to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday to discuss the string of thorny global issues, co-chair the strategic dialogue between the EU and China and iron out details ahead of a summit of high level between Brussels and Beijing scheduled for the end of the year.
“An important visit to discuss EU-China relations and the main regional and global challenges with government authorities, academics and business representatives,” Borrell said on social networks as soon as he landed in the morning (local time) in the megalopolis of Shanghai. , the financial capital. There he has met part of the business community of the community bloc – which has been denouncing in recent times the difficulties in carrying out their businesses in an environment of growing uncertainty in the country, in addition to the lack of reciprocity in access to the Chinese market – , and has attended the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, where he has exchanged world views with Chinese academics.
He is expected to leave for the Chinese capital on Friday, where he will give a talk to students at Peking University and finally meet with his counterpart, Wang Yi. On the table will be possible progress towards peace talks in Ukraine, after China offered itself as a possible facilitator of the dialogue with the presentation in February of a document for the “political solution to the crisis”, to which the EU responded in a cold start due to Beijing’s proximity to Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin is actually planning to make an official visit to China next week.
Borrell and Wang will also address, in all likelihood, the critical situation in the Middle East, following the attack by the Islamist group Hamas on Israel and the response of the Israeli army with bombings on the Gaza Strip and the blockade of the territory. The new war unleashed has already claimed the lives of some 2,700 people.
Beijing, unlike Brussels and Washington, did not immediately come out to condemn the Hamas attack. The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday without express condemnation in which it called on the parties to “immediately put an end to hostilities”, denounced “the paralysis of the peace process” and stressed that the solution involves “implementing the solution.” of two States and establish an independent State of Palestine.” Already on Tuesday, the Chinese special envoy for the Middle East, Zhai Jun, assured that his country “opposes and condemns acts that harm the civilian population” and offered Beijing’s mediation for a ceasefire.
In June, during an official visit to China by the Palestinian leader, Mahmud Abbas, the president of the People’s Republic, Xi Jinping, assured that “justice must be done to Palestine as soon as possible” and proposed an independent Palestinian State as a solution based on of the 1967 borders. At the same time, Beijing has cultivated its relations with Israel. In July, Xi conveyed to the Prime Minister of this country, Benjamin Netanyahu, his intention to receive him in the Chinese capital later this year.
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Borrell’s trip comes at a turbulent time, but it comes at last, after two previous attempts were truncated after the country reopened in January: the first, scheduled for April, was suspended after the head of European diplomacy tested positive for covid; the second, scheduled for July, was postponed by the Chinese authorities when the then Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic, Qin Gang, had already been missing for a few days; Shortly afterward he was fired and his whereabouts remain unknown.
The visit of the high representative adds to a diplomatic offensive by Brussels, which has sent several European commissioners on an official trip to China in recent weeks. In all these meetings, the risk reduction strategy implemented by Brussels to avoid dependence on the Asian giant in critical sectors hovers over. In September, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the start of an investigation into China’s alleged state subsidies for its electric vehicles. The measure came as a sting in Beijing, which called it “pure protectionism.”
Borrell has defended on numerous occasions the definition that the EU has agreed on for China as a “partner, a competitor and a systemic rival”, a triptych that Brussels must calibrate based on the matter and “China’s own behavior”, according to he wrote in an article in May. In the text he assured that Beijing’s objective is “clearly to create a new world order” and asked the Twenty-Seven to be aware that many countries see China’s geopolitical influence “as a counterweight to the West and, therefore, to Europe.” . But he also concluded: “European and Chinese societies need to know each other better. Obstacles to the free circulation of ideas and the presence of Europeans in China must be removed. Otherwise, China and Europe will become increasingly strangers to each other.”
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