Xi Jinping asked European officials to “properly handle differences and frictions” as the 25th China-EU summit got underway in Beijing amid simmering tensions over trade and the Ukraine war.
“The current challenges facing Europe do not come from China,” state news agency Xinhua quoted the Chinese leader telling European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa on Thursday.
The summit marks 50 years of the establishment of EU-China ties.
Expectations are muted as the summit is being held under the shadow of growing trade tensions and hawkish EU rhetoric towards Beijing.
Ms von der Leyen earlier this month accused China of using its manufacturing overcapacity to flood global markets and of “enabling Russia’s war economy”.
The two sides differ significantly on the Ukraine war as China backs Russia’s position on the conflict while the EU provides military, economic and diplomatic support to Kyiv.
In addition to Mr Xi, Ms von der Leyen and Mr Costa are expected to meet premier Li Qiang, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
Mr Xi urged the EU officials at the summit to "adhere to open cooperation and properly handle differences and frictions" after Ms von der Leyen warned that the bloc’s ties with China were at an “inflection point” and called for a rebalancing of trade ties with the world's second largest economy.
“Improving competitiveness can’t rely on 'building walls and fortresses’. ‘Decoupling and breaking chains' will only result in isolation,” Mr Xi added, according to Xinhua.
He also urged the European leaders to "make correct strategic choices" in a veiled criticism of their recent hawkish stances on China.
“It is hoped the European side will keep the trade and investment market open and refrain from using restrictive economic and trade tools," he said, reiterating China’s position on global trade in the wake of America’s imposition of sweeping tariffs on almost all major countries.
The EU delegation was expected to bring up the subject of electric vehicles and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. The controls temporarily stopped European automotive production lines when they were first announced in May in response to the US tariffs.
The EU, meanwhile, has targeted Chinese exports of electric vehicles, among other goods, over the last year and its officials have repeatedly complained about Chinese industrial overcapacity.
“As our cooperation has deepened, so have imbalances,” Ms von der Leyen told the Chinese president during the meeting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
“We have reached an inflection point,” she added, asking China to “come forward with real solutions”.
The EU’s trade deficit with China surged to a historic high of £265bn last year.
In spite of their differences, Beijing and Brussels agreed on a joint statement on climate, an area of mutual cooperation.
They agreed to strengthen climate action, signalling renewed cooperation between two of the world’s largest polluters at a time of rising global tensions and waning US leadership. They committed to submit new 2035 climate targets, scale up renewable energy, and deepen cooperation on methane, adaptation and green technology ahead of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil.
“This joint statement sends an important signal that climate cooperation can still rise above geopolitical tensions,” said David Waskow, international climate director at the World Resources Institute.
“Stronger leadership from these two major emitters is critically needed to rekindle global momentum after the US stepped away from the Paris Agreement again.”
Climate advocates said the pledge could help stabilise the multilateral process but warned that concrete ambition was still lacking.
“The EU–China statement sends a timely message,” Andreas Sieber of 350.org told The Independent. “But the level of ambition remains far too low… aligning with the 1.5C limit requires urgent, credible action, especially with COP30 fast approaching.”
The statement come just a day after the world's top court ruled that healthy environment was a human right and countries could be violating international law by not taking climate action.
