The bloc recently released a 10-point plan pledging a shift to bolder, more aggressive relations with Beijing, saying that China was Europe’s “rival” as well as its biggest trading partner. Mr Xi’s visit comes a week after Brussels published a 10-point plan signalling a shift to tougher, more defensive relations with Beijing, warning that China was a “rival” to the bloc despite being its biggest trading partner. Mr Macron said as he arrived for a two-day EU summit in Brussels: “Since the beginning of my mandate I’ve been calling for real awareness and for the defence of a sovereign Europe.
“I’d say that finally we have it for an issue as important as China.”
He added the European Commission’s plan laid out a “very good” strategy to handle Beijing and said he “welcomed this European awakening,” in a reference to China’s continued efforts to produce high-end products designed to compete with those made in Europe.
The commission’s proposals include measures to forcefully nudge Beijing into agreeing to deep reforms of World Trade Organization rules, namely on subsidies and forced transfers of technology.
The EU plan also marks a possible end to Chinese businesses’ unhampered access to EU markets, which Beijing has not reciprocated.
Beijing, for its part, said in response to the commission’s proposals that it hopes Brussels can treat China in an “objective, fair and rational manner”.
Caught between a US-Chinese arm-wrestle for economic and military power, EU leaders will try to find a middle ground on a slippery slope during a summit dinner in Brussels, the first time they have held high-level talks on how to deal with Beijing.
But the bloc’s trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom, a Swedish liberal, took a more cautious stance on EU-China relations than Mr Macron, stressing that the international economic order had changed.
Mrs Malmstrom argued that the bloc often agreed with the US on the nature of the China problems, but not always on the cure – citing US tariffs on EU imports and Washington’s trade war with Beijing.
“It is tempting to try to lock out China, to decouple rather than to discipline. That might work in the short term. But the long term requires a deeper fix, systematic reforms built to last,” she said, calling for transatlantic cooperation on the issue.
European leaders — who have often been at odds over China — are determined to put up a more united front ahead of an EU-China summit on April 9.
The EU is reportedly seeking deadlines for China to make good on trade and investment promises it has repeatedly delayed, according to a draft April summit statement seen by Reuters.
The statement marked a shift towards what EU diplomats have described as a more “assertive and competitive mindset”.
With over a billion euros a day in bilateral trade, the EU is China’s top trading partner, while China is second only to the US as a market for European goods and services.
The deep-rooted tensions lie around China’s reluctance to open up its economy, Chinese takeovers in critical sectors in Europe and a nagging feeling that Beijing doesn’t defend free trade.
Mr Macron will hold talks with Mr Xi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Paris next week, the French presidency said on Thursday.
The four will meet at the Elysée Palace on Tuesday to discuss “big multilateral matters” including trade and climate change.
The EU leaders hope to establish “a dialogue built on truth and trust between the European Union and China,” Mr Macron’s office said.