European Union leaders are lining up to visit Beijing in an attempt to woo China away from Russia, after Beijing’s global image took a boost following its mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s much-publicised visit to Moscow.
Speaking at a press conference following an EU leaders?’ summit in Brussels last Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, they will travel to China early April.
The aim of the trip is “to try to bring China to our side to put pressure on Russia, but also to do everything to stop the conflict and return to the negotiating table,” he told the news conference.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced that he will visit Beijing this Thursday for talks with President Xi Jinping, and intends to discuss China?’s framework for negotiating a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself last week said that he was also planning to meet China’s Xi Jinping and expressed hope that China would support a “just peace”.
This flurry of visits by top European figures to Beijing reflects a growing concern in Brussels over the deepening of relations between China and Russia that could have global ramifications detrimental to Europe?’s influence in the world.
President Xi Jinping paid a three-day visit to Moscow last week where he discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin?’s China’s a 12-point peace plan for Ukraine, which was welcomed by Putin as the basis for a peaceful solution.
Comments in the western media expressed worries that China and Russia are forging an anti-western alliance to overturn the current west-dominated world order.
UK daily The Times commented that Xi’s visit to Moscow is a “major blow to the West.” “With the cementing of their informal alliance in Moscow this week, China and Russia have set themselves in clear opposition to the western model. And there is no guarantee that the ‘global south’ of non-aligned states will take the West’s side,” it opined.
“Mr. Xi has been careful to cast himself as peacemaker. But his 12-point peace plan for Ukraine, trumpeted during the visit, was silent on a Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory,” commented the Times.
Spanish daily EL Mundo saw in Xi’s visit to Moscow a “dangerous political and economic alliance between two autocracies united by a desire to overturn the world order.” Moreover, China?’s role as a mediator won global recognition after Saudi Arabia and Iran recently announced at a meeting in Beijing their intention of resuming diplomatic ties and normalising their relations.
In a lukewarm reaction, the EU released a statement welcoming the Iran-Saudi deal but abstained from giving any credit to China.
Europe’s press pointed to the fact that it was Beijing that brokered this breakthrough, which has taken the West completely by surprise.
Spanish daily ABC commented that “thanks to the mediation of China, which has recently strengthened its geostrategic role, Iran and Saudi Arabia have resumed diplomatic relations, which had been suspended since 2016.” Croatian daily Vevernji said China’s role as a mediator is “diplomatic victory for Beijing.” “This success for China in mediating between Saudi Arabia and Iran is seen as Beijing’s diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East and the most tangible evidence to date that Beijing is willing to use its global influence to help resolve foreign conflicts,” it commented.
Observers in Brussels are surprised that Von der Leyen who is a strong supporter of the US?’s hawkish policy on China has agreed to accompany the French President to China.
“Von der Leyen, as the actual supreme power in the EU, has been a representative of the hardliners against China in the EU’s top leadership since she took office in December 2019,” noted the Brussels-based publication Politico.
“Senior figures in the European Council including President Charles Michel” are pushing for a less confrontational approach to China than that of the Biden administration, which is trying to pressure allies to team up in taking on Beijing,” it said.
On several occasions, von der Leyen has strongly criticised China on human rights and other issues.
“When it comes to the system itself, it is human rights and human dignity … that is the main issue that clearly divides us. The Chinese system is fundamentally different from ours and we are aware of the nature of the rivalry”, von der Leyen had once said.
The EU?’s diplomatic service called the EU External Action Service in a recent report said “over the past year, EU-China bilateral relations have deteriorated, notably related to a growing number of irritants.” These include China?’s counter sanction to EU sanctions on human rights, economic coercion and trade measures against the EU single market, and China?’s positioning on the war in Ukraine, it noted.
Although China is the EU’s largest trading partner while the EU is the second largest of China’s, differences between the two are vast and there are many areas where they don’t see eye-to-eye, like Ukraine and Taiwan. It is left to be seen whether the visits by top European leaders to China would be successful in overcoming the irritants in their relations.
Source: Kuwait News Agency