According to reports in Bloomberg, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has threatened to reduce by one day the planned EU-China summit of July 24-25, and cancel the economic summit which is planned for the second day. Wang’s meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, which lasted four hours, must have been uncomfortable for Kallas. Her confrontationist attitude has found a mountain to climb.
The failure of the Kallas-Wang meeting follows the unpleasant shift by Kallas’ boss, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the G7 in Canada. On April 8 von der Leyen spoke with Chinese Premier Li Qiang about improving relations. Beijing promptly declared its willingness to talk and, at the end of April, lifted sanctions against several EU parliamentarians that had been in place for four years. Planning for the EU-China summit began.
But in mid-June, there was an abrupt turnaround at the G7, where von der Leyen launched a frontal attack on Beijing. She said the “biggest collective problem” in world trade was not the U.S. tariff war, but China’s membership in the World Trade Organization. She spoke of “dominance” and “blackmail,” referring not to Washington, but to Beijing.
Beijing promptly responded with a clear answer: a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said they were “extremely dissatisfied” with this affront.
Wang’s meeting with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadepuhl had different tones. Although both parties acknowledged “difficulties” in bilateral relations, they both stressed the need to solve them “through dialogue.” In particular, Wang assured Wadepuhl that China will not create problems with rare earth minerals, which is indispensable for the German auto industry. Wadepuhl on his side dropped all confrontationist postures that he and Merz had had during the election campaign. Wang left Berlin for Paris on July 4.
