China poised to scale back summit with EU in latest sign of strain

BEIJING – The Chinese government intends to cancel part of a two-day summit with European Union (EU) leaders planned for later in July, in the latest sign of tensions between Brussels and Beijing.

The second day of a summit in China is set to be scrapped at Beijing’s request, according to people with knowledge of the planning, who asked not to be named discussing private information. Those plans could change by the time they are finalised, one of the people said.

Originally, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa had planned to meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on July 24 and then travel to Hefei in central China on July 25 for a business summit.

The summit will now just be on one day in Beijing.

“The fact that they would have cancelled the second part of the trip, which was the business part of the trip, is telling,” said Mr Gerard DiPippo, associate director at the Rand China Research Centre.

“It is a sign that they’re sticking more to strategic issues and are less engaged on the economic side.”

Mr Xi is trying to position himself as a more reliable partner than US President Donald Trump, who is alienating US allies over issues from tariffs to defence.

But relations between Brussels and Beijing have also been more strained by longstanding disagreements over the war in Ukraine and Chinese industrial policy. 

After signs of a thaw earlier in 2025, China’s recent export controls on rare earth magnets have hit European industries hard, compounding an increasingly unbalanced trading relationship.

Combined with a lack of any significant progress over longstanding trade and economic issues, the tensions have dampened enthusiasm in the EU over the summit.

The two sides had already cancelled the flagship EU-China High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue and a digital forum, Bloomberg reported in June.

That economic meeting would typically lay the groundwork for the leaders’ summit, but was called off by the EU owing to a lack of progress on trade.

When asked about the EU-China summit, given the prospect of its partial cancellation, Professor Wu Xinbo, director at Fudan University’s Centre for American Studies in Shanghai, said he was confident that a high-level meeting between the two sides would go ahead as planned.

China’s Commerce Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

When asked on July 4, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said “both sides have agreed to prepare for the new China-EU meeting adequately”, but did not give any further details.

The series of ongoing disagreements present growing challenges for the relationship.

When the EU imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) in 2024, China launched anti-dumping probes into European brandy, dairy and pork.

On July 4, China’s Commerce Ministry said its investigation found that there was dumping of imported brandy originating from EU, but it would exempt 34 firms from duties if they fulfilled a minimum price pledge.

The move could be seen as an olive branch from Beijing, and echoes the “minimum pricing” policy China wants the EU to adopt to resolve the EV dispute. Still, it may offer little comfort to cognac producers, who have already seen exports to China plunge after earlier duties.

Trade imbalances

The new rift comes as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is in Europe for meetings in Brussels, Germany and France.

After talks in Berlin with Mr Wang, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul criticised China over its recent export restrictions on rare earths.

“Unfortunately, our companies are currently facing one-sided and not very transparent export restrictions for rare earths,” Dr Wadephul said on the evening of July 3 in the German capital.

“This uncertainty is damaging our trade relations and also damaging China’s image in Germany as a reliable trading partner overall,” he added, and called for “fair and reciprocal” trade relations between the two countries. 

Mr Wang, who spoke alongside Dr Wadephul, insisted rare earths were “dual-use goods” that needed to be controlled. “This is part of our sovereignty,” he said.

The reported shortened EU summit was not mentioned at the press conference.

Mr Wang will meet French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on July 4 in Paris and speak at a joint press conference after that meeting.  

‘Distortive practices’

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas earlier told Mr Wang that it was important to rebalance the economic relationship and end “distortive practices” including the restrictions on rare earths exports, according to a read-out from July 3.

She also urged China to end support for Russia’s military-industrial complex and back a full and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine.

At the meeting, Mr Wang said that the two sides should regard each other as partners, not rivals, and should properly handle differences through communication, according to a Chinese statement. 

Beijing is worried that the EU will agree to a trade deal with the US that could damage Chinese interests. Chinese officials are particularly concerned that the EU might sign up to provisions similar to those in Britain’s deal with the US, which included commitments around supply chain security, export controls and ownership rules in sectors like steel.

“It’s not surprising that we will not have results we hope for,” Italian Ambassador to China Massimo Ambrosetti said about the upcoming summit.

“But we have to realistically consider that the preparation of the summit was influenced by the negotiations on tariffs still going on between the EU and the US and between China and the US.”

Mr Ambrosetti said he was unaware of the reports on the cancellation of one day of the summit.

The shortened summit is unexpected. The EU Chamber of Commerce in China was inviting members to sign up for the meetings in Hefei in an e-mail on the morning of July 3.

Mr Kevin Broady, chief analyst for the Helsinki-based China Office of Finnish Industries, said such a cancellation would “not send a message of confidence to European business”.

“Face-to-face engagement at the top level is key to EU-China relations, and businesses see the importance of that,” he added. BLOOMBERG