Ahead of EU-China summit, Wang Yi says Beijing can't afford Russian defeat

In talks with the EU, Wang Yi pushed back on criticism and reaffirmed Beijing's strategic alignment with Moscow

Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly China brief.

This week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Europe meeting with business leaders and officials in preparation for the EU-China summit, set for July 24–25 in Beijing and Anhui province. With the EU holding a long list of grievances and the PRC having little incentive to offer further concessions after recently signing a trade deal with the U.S., expectations for the summit are low.

According to the EU’s readout of Wang Yi’s meeting with Kaja Kallas, the union’s top diplomat and vice-president of the European Commission, she “called on China to put an end to its distortive practices, including its restrictions on rare earths exports” and “urged China to immediately cease all material support that sustains Russia’s military industrial complex.”

The Chinese readout struck a different tone, quoting Wang Yi as saying there is “no fundamental conflict of interests between China and the EU,” and that “both sides support m…