European Commission President Meets Xi Jinping In China This Week

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen/PHOTO via Instagram @ursulavonderleyen

JAKARTA - China has confirmed plans for a high-level summit with the European Union in Beijing this week, marking 50 years of diplomatic relations, as the two sides seek to resolve trade disputes amid growing global trade uncertainty.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa will visit China on Thursday and meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Chinese Prime Minister, Li Qiang, will co-chair the 25th European China-Uni Summit with EU leaders on the same day.

The meeting comes amid heated global trade tensions, with Beijing seeking to secure closer economic and political ties with the bloc to protect itself from uncertainty in its relations with the United States.

The European Union-China relations declined sharply in 2021 when Brussels imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, a move that then sparked rapid retaliatory sanctions from Beijing, which halted most bilateral exchanges.

Relations have also been damaged by various trade disputes in recent years, including disputes over electric vehicles made in China, bandies and European pork, government purchases of medical devices, and rare earth metals.

In a recent speech, von der Leyen praised China's economic progress, but said the country had flooded the global market with its overcapacity, limited access to its market, and de factoily allowed the Russian war economy.

The bloc that calls China a "cooperation partner, economic competitor, and systemic rival," also states the need to disburse relations amid global trade uncertainty.

After US President Donald Trump announced a broad tariff in April, von der Leyen told Chinese Prime Minister Li by phone call the European Union and China was responsible for supporting a strong trading system that has been reformed, free, fair, and based on equality.