China has canceled a visit to Beijing planned for next week by the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Brussels said.
The senior EU official was due to head to China for talks with foreign minister Qin Gang, after earlier having to delay a trip in April due to a COVID infection.
“Unfortunately, we were informed by the Chinese counterparts that the envisaged dates next week are no longer possible and we must now look for alternatives,” EU spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said on Tuesday.
The cancellation comes after EU leaders at a summit in Brussels last week backed a strategy aimed at reducing the bloc’s dependency on China for key technology and components.
Borrell was due to visit Beijing on July 10 to meet his Chinese counterpart and discuss “strategic issues” including human rights and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In a prepared speech for delivery in Beijing in April, Borrell had said that the EU cannot trust China if it does not seek peace in Ukraine.
China has said it wants to broker a peace in Ukraine but its position paper released in February was met with lukewarm responses by both Russia and Ukraine.
EU wants to cut China’s dependence without disrupting stable relations
“Press Russia to stop”
The EU has said relations will depend on China’s approach to the war in Ukraine and has urged Beijing to use its influence over Moscow to “press Russia to stop”.
Ambassador Jorge Toledo, EU’s ambassador to Beijing, earlier told the World Peace Forum in Beijing on Sunday that China and Europe are likely to hold two in-person dialogues in September, one on the economy and trade and another on digital matters, before a leaders’ summit at the end of the year.
“We want to engage with China but we need progress and we need it this year,” Toledo said.
EU climate chief Frans Timmermans, who is in Beijing this week for environment talks, also failed to visit China in April because he caught COVID-19.
The 27-nation bloc insists it is not looking to “decouple” from the world’s second-largest economy entirely, even as it seeks new supply lines for critical materials elsewhere.
EU states, with their disparate economic and political interests, have long struggled to fashion a united stance on China, and the United States has pushed them to take a tougher line.
