EU-China summit brings a fragile cooling of tensions

Brussels and Beijing seek stability but offer little substance

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

Meant to mark 50 years of diplomatic ties, the PRC hosted an EU-China summit this week in Beijing. With the relationship under strain over trade tensions and China’s support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and held talks with Premier Li Qiang.

Ahead of the summit, on Monday, China’s Ministry of Commerce responded to the EU’s recent move to sanction two Chinese banks for helping Moscow circumvent sanctions—the first such action since the war in Ukraine began. The ministry said the decision “had a serious negative impact on China-EU economic and trade relations and financial cooperation,” and vowed to “take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and financial institutions.”

In her opening remarks to Xi, von der Leyen said the two s…