Chinese President Xi Jinping met via video link with President Charles Michel of the European
Council and President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission in Beijing on the
evening of April 1.
Providing guidance and charting a course for the healthy and sustained relationship between China
and Europe, President Xi stressed that China and the EU should act as two major forces upholding
world peace, two big markets promoting shared development, and two great civilizations
promoting human progress. He also shared his views on how to settle the Ukraine crisis under the
current circumstances.
When President Xi paid a historic visit to the EU headquarters in March 2014, he suggested that
China and Europe work together to foster a China-EU partnership for peace, growth, reform and
civilization, which has endowed the China-Europe comprehensive strategic partnership with new
connotations.
This vision remains unchanged today and is of practical significance under the current
circumstances. As the world has entered a period of new turbulence and transformation, China and
the EU should offset uncertainties in the international landscape with the stability of China-EU
relations, deepen economic globalization through open cooperation, and meet global challenges
through solidarity and collaboration.
China and the EU are two major independent forces that share broad strategic consensus and
common interests. Dialogue and cooperation remain the mainstream of China-EU relations, and
mutual benefit is the keynote of China-EU cooperation. It’s a consensus between the two sides that
they need peace, multilateralism and dialogue, instead of war, unilateralism, and confrontation.
China and the EU should perceive their relations from broader strategic and more profound
historical perspectives. Xi said they should take the lead in defending the international system
with the UN at its core, the international order underpinned by international law, and the basic
norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter,
and jointly reject the resurrection of rival-bloc mentality and oppose attempts at a new Cold War,
with a view to maintaining world peace and stability.
Xi called on the EU to form its own perception of China, adopt an independent China policy, and
work with China to promote the steady and sustained growth of China-EU relations and to add
stabilizing factors to a turbulent world.
China and the EU are important trading partners of each other. They carry out cooperation in a
wide range of fields and their interests are interwoven.
China has remained the largest trading partner of the EU for two consecutive years, and the trade
volume between the two sides reached a record high of more than $800 billion last year. The trade
structure between them is constantly optimized, with prominent growth observed in aerospace,
biology, optoelectronics, and electronics.
China’s solid efforts to deepen reform and expand opening up have created important
opportunities for European business investment. The China-EU agreement on geographical
indications has further facilitated bilateral trade, and the China-Europe freight trains are also
contributing to the stability of the international industrial and supply chains.
As two major economies, China and the EU enjoy strong resilience and huge potential in
economic and trade cooperation. The cooperation between them is conducive to not only their
own development, but also the economic recovery of the world.
Facing increasing global challenges, China and the EU need to follow true multilateralism and
advocate a vision of global governance featuring the principle of extensive consultation, joint
contribution and shared benefits.
From jointly making important contributions to the reaching of the Paris Agreement to leading
cooperation on biodiversity, and from offering mutual assistance in the fight against COVID-19 to
further enhancing anti-pandemic cooperation for narrowing the global immunity gap, China and
the EU enjoy a solid foundation in strengthening cooperation.
China welcomes the EU’s support for and participation in the Global Development Initiative. The
two sides’ efforts to promote world peace, economic growth and common prosperity will
contribute wisdom and strength to improving global governance.
Concerning regional and global peace and stability, the situation in Ukraine is receiving high
attention from the international society. During the meeting with President Michel and President
von der Leyen, President Xi called on the global community to encourage peace talks, prevent a
humanitarian crisis on a bigger scale, foster lasting peace in Europe and the Eurasian continent,
and prevent the regional conflict from magnifying. His proposals fully demonstrated China’s
major responsibility to always stand on the right side of history and play a constructive role in
safeguarding world peace and the common interests of mankind.
Promoting peace talks, keeping the situation under control, preventing larger-scale humanitarian
crisis and spillover of the Ukraine crisis are a consensus reached between China and the EU. Both
of the two sides are unwilling to see the world divided, and oppose a new Cold War in any form.
There is no conflict of fundamental interests between China and the EU. Cooperation far
outweighs competition, and consensus far outweighs disagreement. The two sides should maintain
their mutual understanding, and adhere to mutual trust, dialogues and cooperation for win-win
results, so as to make constant progress of China-EU relations, and make their contributions to
world peace and development as two major forces, big markets and great civilizations.
