Did Jinping expose disunity in Europe?

Yuchen Li, Wesley Rahn

CHINA: Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded a high-profile European tour on Friday amid concerns in Europe over Chinese support for Russia's war in Ukraine and European markets being flooded with cheap Chinese electric vehicles. Xi's first visit to the region since 2019 also comes amid growing suspicions that China is seeking to take advantage of divisions in Europe. And analysts pointed out that Xi's itinerary was no coincidence.

Bertram Lang, a research associate at Goethe University in Frankfurt who specializes in China's foreign policy, said that the countries on Xi's tour  France, Serbia and Hungary  all have "special bilateral relationships" with Beijing. Lang added that the Chinese leadership has gradually divided Europe into two groups, "those friendly and unfriendly to China." And this trip aimed to emphasize relationships with the former.

Xi began his tour in France, where his two-day state visit and talks with French President Emmanuel Macron focused on the war in Ukraine and trade imbalances with the EU. While China and Xi prefer engagement at a bilateral level, Macron sought to demonstrate European unity by including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who recently concluded a visit to China, was invited to Paris but did not attend. However, Scholz and Macron met ahead of Xi's visit on May 2 to touch base on China policy. In Paris, Von der Leyen's public remarks took direct aim at what she called China's "market distortion practices" with massive subsidies for electric vehicle and steel industries. China has been criticised for "overcapacity" and dumping underpriced products into EU and US markets.

The European Commission announced that it would launch anti-subsidy probes into Chinese electric vehicles and solar panels to determine whether to impose punitive tariffs on them. During the trilateral meeting in Paris, von der Leyen told Xi that Europe "will not waver from making tough decisions needed to protect its economy and security."

In response to von der Leyen's remarks, Xi said that there is no such thing as "China's overcapacity problem," whether from the perspective of comparative advantage or global market demand, state broadcaster Xinhua reported. "We are seeing a stronger convergence in the EU between member states" and "a Commission that is quite determined" to level the playing field of trade with China, Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, a former political adviser in the European Parliament, told DW.

Nevertheless, Chinese state media framed Xi's France visit as a success. A report in the Global Times cited 18 "cooperation agreements" between government agencies in aviation, agriculture, people-to-people exchanges, green development and SME cooperation as a "positive signal for European entrepreneurs" and a "stabilizer to China-Europe trade ties" against economic "decoupling."

On Ukraine, Beijing has still yet to convince leaders that it is not supporting Russia in the Ukraine war. China has also stonewalled on calls from European and US leaders to use its influence on Moscow to help play a constructive role in ending the conflict.

This is despite Xi supporting Macron's call of an "Olympic Truce" of all global conflicts during the summer games in Paris. The US has said China is providing Russia with machine tools, drone engines and technology used for cruise missiles. China is also helping support Russia's economy by supplying industrial and consumer goods.

Xi responded strongly to these accusations in his public remarks in Paris, claiming the Ukraine crisis was "being used to cast responsibility on a third country, sully its image and incite a new cold war." He added that China was "not a participant" in the crisis.

Jean-Philippe Beja, a China expert and senior researcher at the Center for International Studies and Research (CISR) at University Sciences Po in Paris, told DW that during the talks, Xi was made aware that Russia's war on Ukraine "is a matter of life and death for Europe." "This is a highly negative factor in Sino-European relations," Beja said.