EU risks coming back empty-handed from China summit

The European Union and China are so far not planning to issue a joint statement following their much-anticipated summit in December, two European diplomats and an EU official told POLITICO.

Although no decision has officially been taken yet, the lack of joint diplomatic commitment would lay bare deepening rifts between the two sides, after the European Commission launched an investigation into subsidies for made-in-China electric vehicles and as it eyes other sectors such as medical devices and wind energy.

Since China is hosting the summit, Beijing is supposed to propose the first draft, one of the diplomats said, echoing common practice in international diplomacy (the diplomat, like others in this piece, was granted anonymity to speak freely about the summit). But with only two weeks to go to the gathering and no draft yet in sight, it looks increasingly unlikely that the two sides will arrive at joint commitments by then.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel will fly to China for the December 7-8 gathering — the first summit held in four years under this format — amid heightened geopolitical tensions. Von der Leyen and Michel are expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, while Chinese Premier Li Qiang is expected to chair.

The summit follows a raft of high-level dialogues between Brussels and Beijing, focusing on issues including trade, energy and digital affairs. The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, visited China in mid-October.

A second EU official said that preparations for the summit and diplomatic contacts were currently underway, and did not rule out that a statement could still come through. But the official stressed that "recent EU-China summits have not had a joint statement."

Last week, von der Leyen doubled down in a keynote speech on the need to investigate Beijing’s industry subsidies, calling for a "clear-eyed" approach to Beijing’s hardening global posturing.

Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden meanwhile enshrined marginal takeaways from their meeting last week around artificial intelligence and high-level military talks, but didn’t budge on the more fundamental irritants in their bilateral relationship.