>China has issued a stern rebuke to the EU for imposing sanctions on the country’s banks, setting the stage for what are expected to be tough talks in Beijing on Thursday.
>China’s commerce minister Wang Wentao “lodged solemn representations” over the sanctions with EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, the ministry said on Wednesday.
>The restrictions, which targeted two small Chinese banks for facilitating trade with Russia, were imposed days before a summit on Thursday with EU and Chinese leaders, which will mark half a century of ties between the sides.
>European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president António Costa are expected to raise differences with China over trade and the Ukraine war with President Xi Jinping and his number two, premier Li Qiang.
>Beijing will be keen to portray the summit as a triumph of multilateralism and a sign that Europe is splitting away from Donald Trump’s US. Brussels, however, is focused on emphasising that China’s ballooning trade surpluses and alleged supplies of dual-use goods for Moscow’s war effort, which Beijing denies, are unacceptable.
>“China is the key enabler of Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, told the Financial Times ahead of Thursday’s summit.
>She added that the EU was concerned about Chinese industrial overcapacity, trade imbalances and “economic coercive practices”, citing its dominance in critical raw materials, chemicals and consumer drones. “Trade and security are interlinked,” she said.
>Von der Leyen and Costa will have plenty of face time with Xi during the one-day visit, which is set to include a summit and working lunch followed by a meeting and banquet with Li.
>Beijing has sought to project a positive tone, hailing the summit as an encounter between “two major forces in building a multi-polar world, two big markets that support globalisation and two great civilisations that advocate cultural diversity”.
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Archived version: [https://archive.fo/gzeuT](https://archive.fo/gzeuT).
>China has issued a stern rebuke to the EU for imposing sanctions on the country’s banks, setting the stage for what are expected to be tough talks in Beijing on Thursday.
>China’s commerce minister Wang Wentao “lodged solemn representations” over the sanctions with EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, the ministry said on Wednesday.
>The restrictions, which targeted two small Chinese banks for facilitating trade with Russia, were imposed days before a summit on Thursday with EU and Chinese leaders, which will mark half a century of ties between the sides.
>European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president António Costa are expected to raise differences with China over trade and the Ukraine war with President Xi Jinping and his number two, premier Li Qiang.
>Beijing will be keen to portray the summit as a triumph of multilateralism and a sign that Europe is splitting away from Donald Trump’s US. Brussels, however, is focused on emphasising that China’s ballooning trade surpluses and alleged supplies of dual-use goods for Moscow’s war effort, which Beijing denies, are unacceptable.
>“China is the key enabler of Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, told the Financial Times ahead of Thursday’s summit.
>She added that the EU was concerned about Chinese industrial overcapacity, trade imbalances and “economic coercive practices”, citing its dominance in critical raw materials, chemicals and consumer drones. “Trade and security are interlinked,” she said.
>Von der Leyen and Costa will have plenty of face time with Xi during the one-day visit, which is set to include a summit and working lunch followed by a meeting and banquet with Li.
>Beijing has sought to project a positive tone, hailing the summit as an encounter between “two major forces in building a multi-polar world, two big markets that support globalisation and two great civilisations that advocate cultural diversity”.
!ping Europe
Hot air as usual.