Xi Jinping is plotting closer ties with with the European Union amid a widening rift between the United States and Europe, experts have said. Beijing was seeking to improve relations with Brussels before US President Donald Trump clashed with Ukraine‘s leader Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington.
Chinese diplomats have sought to take advantage of fears the US will abandon its European allies in favour of resetting relations with Vladimir Putin‘s Russia and bringing the war in Ukraine to a swift end. Andrew Small, a Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Germany, said China is at an initial “fact-finding phase” to see what might be possible. He told Radio Free Europe: “Whatever China puts forward will be met with scepticism, but Beijing thinks they will see some opportunities if they can navigate this first phase, especially if tariffs hit.”
His comments came ahead of the doubling of Mr Trump’s tariffs placed on Chinese imports last month, from 10% to 20%. Beijing retaliated on Tuesday (March 4) with tariffs up to 15% on a wide array of US farm exports. It also expanded the number of American companies subject to export controls and other restrictions by about two dozen.
On Ukraine, Beijing appeared to side with Europe at the Munich Security Conference last month, when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China believed Europe and Ukraine should be at the negotiating table with the US and Russia.
Moscow and Beijing had strengthened ties before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the two countries have remained close since.
Retired Chinese colonel, Zhou Bo, told the Guardian at the weekend that peacekeepers from China and the global South could be stationed in Ukraine as part of a deal to end the war.
EU officials have told Radio Free Europe that China still has to present offers beyond its rhetoric about the US being an unreliable ally.
Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, an Assistant Professor at Taiwan’s National Dong Hwa University that a less reliable US doesn’t suddenly make China more reliable.
Meanwhile, Taiwan itself plans to boost military spending amid a rapidly changing international situation.
Mr Trump has demanded Taiwan increase its defence spending to 10% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is above what the US spends.
Questions have been raised over the potential impact of Mr Trump’s approach to Ukrainian sovereignty in his rush for a deal with Russia and how that might play out for China and Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory.
China is expected to unveil its defence budget for this year at this week’s National People’s Congress, which begins on Wednesday (March 5).
The week-long parliamentary session will signal China’s priorities for 2025. Last year Beijing announced a 7.2% increase in its defence budget, which is the second highest in the world behind the US.
Beijing is expected to announce measures to boost domestic consumption such as increasing China’s deficit ratio from 3% to 4% as part of its response to Mr Trump’s tariffs.