Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday warned that the U.S. is muddying Beijing’s relationship with Europe.
Speaking in Rome, where he met Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, Wang said “external inference” — a veiled reference to the U.S., which he did not mention by name — was disrupting relations between China and Europe and said it was “in both of our interests to dispel such interferences.”
Wang’s visit is the first by China’s top diplomat since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and is largely seen as a firefighting mission given the U.S.’s success in getting European countries to sign up to a harder stance on China.
Wang arrived just two weeks after Mike Pompeo visited the Continent, with the U.S. secretary of state warning on his trip that “the challenge of resisting the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] threat is in some ways worse” than the Cold War.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Wang said both China and Italy face “a challenge of protectionism and unilateralism, and the mentality of the Cold War.” And China “doesn’t intend to engage in such a Cold War,” he said, calling it “a setback, and a return to history.”
Huawei has become a flashpoint in EU-China relations, as an increasing number of countries consider cutting out the company from their 5G infrastructure.
“We’re going to join hands to oppose anyone who tries to pull us back into a Cold War,” he added.
Wang must also contend with a new U.S.-EU dialogue on China, which Pompeo unexpectedly endorsed in June, that was initially proposed by the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and is expected to be finalized next month.
The Chinese diplomat will also lay the groundwork for a virtual meeting in September between China’s President Xi Jinping and the EU’s leadership including European Council President Charles Michel, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council. The details of the meeting are still being worked out, according to one EU official and one EU diplomat.
Plus, Wang will try to defend China’s initial diplomatic response to the coronavirus pandemic. European diplomats have slammed Beijing for using the crisis for propaganda purposes and spreading misinformation about the virus’ origins.
After Italy, Wang will visit the Netherlands, Norway, France and Germany to discuss trade, coronavirus, tensions over Beijing’s crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong and pressure on Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
In Huawei’s defense
Huawei has become a flashpoint in EU-China relations, as an increasing number of countries consider cutting out the company from their 5G infrastructure due to a mix of security concerns, U.S. pressure and an inclination to support European competitors such as Ericsson and Nokia.
The U.S. adopted new measures against Huawei last week that crippled the firm’s supply of chips, leaving industry insiders and lawmakers to question whether the Chinese company will still be able to deliver on its 5G plans.
Wang’s visit “is an attempt by China’s top diplomat to limit the damage and reassure certain countries that Huawei will be able to deliver,” said Noah Barkin, managing editor with research firm Rhodium Group.
European countries in the past year threw up barriers to the use of Chinese technology in the rollout of 5G networks, granting new powers to their security authorities to block deals between operators and Huawei, and imposing tougher requirements on the use of Huawei gear. France and the U.K. adopted plans to phase out Huawei later this decade, while Belgium banned the vendor from sensitive and critical parts of telecom networks.
Wang’s talks in The Hague and Berlin in particular are key to keeping Huawei in play: The German government is still debating whether to limit the Chinese firm’s market access, while lawmakers in the Netherlands have dithered on imposing new legal requirements on telecom firms.
The tour could impact decisions in both countries — which Pompeo skipped on his trip.
Pompeo earlier this month picked the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland — all of which already support the U.S.’s approach on how to handle Huawei — and his tour did little to change minds of European lawmakers that have taken a more critical approach to Washington’s approach.
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