EU-China Archives

The European Union's 27 leaders will seek a new approach to China on Tuesday (5 October) in their first summit on Sino-European strategy since the bloc imposed sanctions on Beijing in March and faced retaliation, jeopardising a new investment pact.

China should abandon a top-level strategy promoted by President Xi Jinping to increase self-reliance, or risk harming innovation and growth prospects, said a European business group on Thursday (23 September).

Lithuania's Defense Ministry recommended that consumers avoid buying Chinese mobile phones and advised people to throw away the ones they have now after a government report found the devices had built-in censorship capabilities.

The European Union on Wednesday decried the jailing of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor for 11 years in China for spying, saying he had been denied a "fair trial".

The United States on Monday (19 July) accused Beijing of carrying out a massive hack of Microsoft email servers and charged four Chinese nationals as it rallied the EU and other allies in rare joint statement condemning "malicious" cyber activity from China.

Two days after the European Union unveiled new carbon-cutting plans, China launched its long-awaited emissions trading system on Friday (16 July), a key tool in its quest to drive down climate change-causing greenhouse gases and go carbon neutral by 2060.

The European Parliament on Thursday (8 July) called for the EU to boycott the February 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing unless China improves the human rights situation in Hong Kong and in the Xinjiang province which is home to the …

While the United States and Europe waged a 17-year trade battle over subsidies to Boeing and Airbus, China poured money into its own commercial aircraft to take on the Western aviation duopoly.

Beijing on Tuesday (15 June) accused NATO of exaggerating the threat from China and "creating confrontation", after a vow from the Western allies to work together to counter the challenges posed by its policies.

The European Union denounced on Wednesday (9 June) Hong Kong's major overhaul of its political system as a breach by China of its international commitments and threatened to send a delegation to visit the autonomous city.

One of Brussels' top two leaders has defended the European Union's efforts to reach an investment agreement with China, ahead of summit meetings with US President Joe Biden.

The world has made good progress on targets to reach net zero emissions, but now it must match those goals with policies, a senior EU official has said.

China has urged France to convince the EU to ratify an investment deal blocked by the European Parliament, but a French minister said Thursday (27 May) that Beijing must first lift sanctions against MEPs.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that attempts by some in the EU to politicise trade issues by slapping sanctions on Beijing are "not acceptable and will lead nowhere" and has rejected the West's accusations that China is perpetrating …

The European Parliament halted on Thursday (20 May) ratification of a new investment pact with China until Beijing lifts sanctions on EU politicians, deepening a dispute in Sino-European relations and denying EU companies greater access to China.

European trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Tuesday (4 May) that efforts to win approval for a proposed massive investment deal with China were effectively "suspended" after tit-for-tat sanctions were imposed by both sides.

Former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker believes the European Union has to be "less naive" with China, saying that "Europeans have to organise their relations" better with other foreign powers.

The European Union called out China on Saturday (24 April) for endangering peace in the South China Sea and urged all parties to abide by a 2016 tribunal ruling which rejected most of China's claim to sovereignty in the sea, but which Beijing has rejected.

The Hungarian government is planning to build a Budapest campus of the Chinese Fudan University with Chinese contractors, financed by a €1.25 billion loan from China, it emerged this month. The controversial project has sparked a row between the Hungarian government and the municipality of Budapest. EURACTIV's media partner Telex takes a closer look.

President Xi Jinping told German leader Angela Merkel during a phone call that he hoped Europe would "make positive efforts with China", Chinese state media reported, following an international row over the treatment of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.

After Brussels moved to impose sanctions on China in March, Beijing retaliated by targeting four Lithuanian politicians among more than a dozen European diplomats and officials. Now, despite direct pressure on Lithuanian MPs, Vilnius is planning to recognise as genocide China's repression against Uighurs. EURACTIV's media partner LRT.lt reports.

The US and Europe have agreed to relaunch a bilateral dialogue on China and work together to address Russia's "challenging behavior," according to a statement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell.

France, Germany and other EU nations called in Chinese ambassadors on Tuesday (23 March) to protest at sanctions imposed by Beijing targeting their citizens, as China and Europe faced off over claims of rights abuses against China's Muslim Uyghur minority.

The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials on Monday (22 March) for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the first such coordinated Western action against Beijing under new US President Joe Biden.