Xi’s invitation to top European leaders met by silence–scmp

Top European leaders haven’t responded to an invitation from president Xi Jinping to meet him in Beijing later this year, according to the South China Morning post, as tensions fray between Beijing and the bloc.

German Chancellor olaf Scholz, French president Emmanuel Macron, Italian prime Minister Mario Draghi and Spanish prime Minister pedro Sánchez have been invited to meet the Chinese president in Beijing this November, the newspaper reported Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The governments of France, Italy and Spain did not respond to questions on the matter, while the Chinese authorities declined to comment and the German government refused to answer, the newspaper reported. It wasn’t reported when the invitation was sent.

The Beijing huddle would coincide with the Group of 20 summit scheduled to be held in Bali from Nov. 15-16. It would also likely follow a major Communist party congress in China, scheduled for the second half of this year, where Xi is set to be handed a landmark third term in office.

Hosting the European leaders would mark a return to in-person diplomacy with the West for Xi, who hasn’t left his country since the outset of the pandemic in January 2020 due to the nation’s zerotolerance virus strategy, attending political summits via video link.

Foreign dignitaries visiting China during the pandemic have typically been hosted in cities such as Tianjin, outside the capital, with an exception made for the Beijing olympics, which most Western democracies shunned. Xi declared a “no limits” friendship with Russian president Vladimir putin at that time, weeks before Moscow invaded Ukraine.

News of the invitations comes as the European Union and China are set to hold a high-level dialog on economy and trade Tuesday, according to an earlier statement from the European Commission. Ahead of the talks, Foreign Minister Wang Yi talked with Emmanuel Bonne, the diplomatic adviser to Macron, according to a Xinhua statement.

Separately, European parliament Vice president Nicola Beer landed in Taiwan on Tuesday, in the first official visit by a high-ranking member of the bloc’s legislative body, according to a statement from Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry. The visit is bound to anger Beijing, which objects to official contact between its diplomatic partners and Taiwan’s government. Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory, even though the Communist party-led government has never controlled the island.

China once saw Europe as an important counter to US power. Relations soured after the EU sanctioned Chinese officials over accusations of human rights abuse in Xinjiang. Beijing responded by placing sanctions on European lawmakers, academics and others, leading the bloc to freeze a longawaited investment deal. Since then, China has blocked trade with EU member Lithuania in a clash over Taiwan and refused to condemn Russia’s war.

That gulf in understanding on major geopolitical issues led to an April video summit between Xi and EU leaders being described as “a dialog of the deaf” by the bloc’s chief diplomat, who blasted China for refusing to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine, human rights, or other issues in the relationship.

At that time, China pushed for an economic dialog to be restarted and for the two sides to continue their cooperation on combating climate change, Nicolas Chapuis, the EU’S ambassador in China, said last month.