FT: China cancels high-level EU meetings amid rising trade tensions

People's Republic of China has cancelled two high-level diplomatic meetings with the European Union this month, escalating tensions between the trading partners as disputes over industrial policy and exports intensify, according to people familiar with the matter.

According to the Financial Times, the cancelled engagements in Beijing included a ministerial-level dialogue on digital issues and a separate meeting involving Olof Skoog, deputy secretary-general of the EU’s diplomatic service, the sources said.

“Two dialogues planned for this month were cancelled by the Chinese side at short notice,” said one person familiar with the matter.

No reason was given for the cancellations. However, both sides have previously used the postponement or cancellation of meetings as a diplomatic signal during periods of disagreement over trade and regulatory policy.

Tensions have risen in recent months as Brussels moves to counter a surge in Chinese exports, which have increased sharply this year, while Beijing has pushed back against proposed EU measures targeting Chinese firms in strategic sectors including technology, energy and manufacturing.

Beijing has also lobbied against new EU initiatives aimed at restricting foreign firms’ access to public procurement and critical infrastructure projects, warning of wider economic consequences if restrictions expand.

“Beijing does not want a trade war with the EU, yet it will take resolute countermeasures should the EU further target Chinese companies or products,” said a commentary in Xinhua, China’s state news agency.

“The EU should not and cannot afford to fight a ‘trade war with China’,” said the Global Times, a Communist Party nationalist mouthpiece.

EU officials, meanwhile, have warned that the bloc’s trade deficit with China has become increasingly difficult to sustain, and have signalled potential new tariffs and investigations in response to what they describe as structural imbalances.

Speaking on Tuesday, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever criticised the diplomatic framing of the dispute, saying: “They have called it geoeconomic imbalances, just not to name China by name, because we are so afraid that we don’t even dare to do that,”

The European Commission said the cancelled meetings were likely to be rearranged, adding: “Engagement and dialogue between the EU and China is ongoing at multiple levels,”

It also pointed to a recent meeting between EU and Chinese officials, saying Ditte Juul Jørgensen, director-general for trade, and China’s vice-minister of commerce Ling Ji had held “in-depth discussions, including to help prepare other upcoming EU-China meetings”.

By Aghakazim Guliyev