China asks EU to ‘clarify’ position on strategic relations

A Chinese top diplomat has told the EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell that the EU should “clarify” its vision of relations between the two sides.

Wang Yi, director of China’s Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, met Borrell on the sidelines of a meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Jakarta on Friday — a couple of weeks after EU leaders agreed to reduce and “de-risk” their dependency on China.

“The EU side should … clarify the positioning of the strategic partnership between the two sides, and promote China-EU relations to move forward,” Wang was quoted by China’s Foreign Ministry as telling Borrell, Reuters reported on Saturday.

“It should not vacillate, let alone encourage words and deeds that turn the clock back,” Wang said.

The EU and China are embroiled in a tit-for-tat trade war, with both sides targeting parts of the semiconductor supply chain. First, the Netherlands imposed export curbs on chip-printing equipment, followed by Chinese export controls on gallium and germanium, two minerals used in the making of microchips.

Earlier this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen labeled the Chinese export controls as “coercion.”

In his own account on Twitter of the meeting with Wang, Borrell said that he expressed the EU’s expectations on China’s role “to help ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.” Another topic of discussion was preserving “stability and the status quo” in the Taiwan Strait.

In April, Borrell had to postpone a visit to China, to which he was invited by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, because of a positive COVID-19 test. Last week, China canceled a new planned visit by Borrell to Beijing. Borrell said on Twitter he was “looking forward to holding soon [a] Strategic Dialogue in Beijing.”