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The message to Europe from Xi’s visit

The lack of response to European trade and strategic concerns points to an assessment that on balance China can afford to ignore a weak player.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Belgrade on May 8.

PHOTO: AFP

Jonathan Eyal

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A “missed opportunity”. That’s the verdict much of Europe’s media reached about the outcome of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the “old continent” last week.

This was

Mr Xi’s first trip to Europe in five years

, a period which seems almost an eternity. Back in 2019, when he last visited, everyone was buying Russian oil and gas, pandemics were of interest only to medical sleuths and historians and, given the antics of Donald Trump in Washington, China was hailed as “the adult in the room”, the only nation able to save the world from trade wars.

The message to Europe from Xi’s visit

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