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By STUART LAU
with PHELIM KINE
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WELCOME BACK FROM YOUR EASTER BREAK. Here’s Stuart Lau reporting from Brussels. Phelim Kine will be with you from the U.S. on Thursday.
DRIVING THE WEEK
TRANSATLANTIC POWWOW IN BELGIUM: As both the U.S. and EU enter election seasons, top officials from both sides of the pond will meet on Thursday for their latest regular Trade and Technology Council (TTC) summit — with China high on the agenda. This time, the TTC will take place in Leuven, a city just east of Brussels, featuring U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
Feels a bit like a farewell: The EU counterparts — Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis and his digital colleague Margrethe Vestager — could be on the way out after the EU elections in June, while this TTC could well be the last before the U.S. elections in November.
In other words: The spirit of comity that has characterized the TTC is unlikely to survive a Donald Trump reloaded. This TTC installment might very well also be its last; the people in Leuven know it — and want to make it count.
POLITICO got a glimpse of two early versions of the draft joint statement, obtained by Mathieu Pollet and Laurens Cerulus. While it might well be significantly changed, the text deals with quite a lot:
— Washington and Brussels want to commit to a joint push to cajole other countries into steering clear of telecom equipment from high-risk vendors (i.e. China’s Huawei or ZTE) and teaming up for a strategy on new-generation 6G networks;
— They seek to condemn Chinese and Russian influence operations in the Balkans;
— They will talk with other like-minded countries about the use of China-made chips.
Read the full story from our colleagues Mark Scott, Camille Gijs and Antonia Zimmermann here.
U.S. CHIP EXPORT RULES RILE BEIJING: China's Commerce Ministry has criticized the Biden administration's latest tightening of export restrictions on high-end semiconductors. Those curbs "not only set more obstacles to normal economic and trade cooperation between Chinese and U.S. enterprises and imposed a heavier compliance burden, but also created great uncertainty for the global semiconductor industry," China's Commerce Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Recap: The new semiconductor export rules aim to block Beijing's access to tools to produce chips as well as artificial intelligence chips that could benefit China's military industrial complex.
EUROPE IN CHINA
FRANCE ASKS CHINA TO STOP PUTIN: China should reason with Russia about the war in Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said in Beijing on Monday.
Beijing "plays a key role in … the respect of international law, including on Ukraine's sovereignty, and therefore we are clearly expecting that China will send very clear messages to Russia," Séjourné said during a press conference in the Chinese capital speaking alongside his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
French reassurance: Séjourné also said France doesn't want to "decouple" from the Chinese economy, but rather engage in an "economic rebalancing" to make sure trade ties are "healthy and sustainable." Laura Kayali has the story.
Preparing for the big trip: Séjourné's comments come as Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in early May.
TRADE CHIEF LOBBYING IN EUROPE: China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao will travel to France next week accompanied by representatives of targeted market-leading automakers BYD, SAIC and Geely for discussions about the European Commission’s investigation into electric vehicles. Reuters has the scoop.
Wang will also attend a China-Italy business forum in Verona, Italy, on April 12, alongside the country’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, the Italian government said.
DUTCH VISIT: More details have emerged over Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte‘s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last week. The conversation began with some funny jokes on football (Xi again lamented the sorry state of Chinese soccer) — but that was just about the end of all his smiles.
Semiconductor concerns: As we reported last week, Xi clearly warned Rutte against erecting tech barriers — in a reference to the Netherlands’ decision to side with the U.S. to impose bans on microchip machine maker ASML’s sale to China. Chinese officials, including Premier Li Qiang, were keen to test where the Dutch red line was, asking in not so equivocal terms whether they would be willing to keep servicing existing machines already sold to China.
However, Rutte tried hard to be diplomatic and stuck to non-committal responses, according to officials briefed of the matter.
Xi sees Rutte as a moderate: After Angela Merkel stepped down as German chancellor, there are probably not that many longstanding European leaders left with whom Xi can reminisce about old ties. (Rutte became PM in 2010, two years before Xi took over the Communist Party.) “Xi sees Rutte as a moderate voice of Europe,” an official said.
China’s interested in the next NATO boss: At Peking University, where Rutte gave a speech to hundreds of students, two were allowed to ask him a question — and the first one was about how he saw Russia and NATO. During his answer, Rutte said he would keep the engagement open with China if he did get the job of NATO secretary general.
**Join us live on April 10 as POLITICO’s Research & Analysis experts deep dive into how the EU's net-zero ambitions have shaped digital, industry and sustainability policy. Register here.**
UK-CHINA
LABOUR HEAD TO TAIWAN: Ahead of what’s expected to be a landslide victory in the next U.K. general election, most likely later this year, the Labour Party organized a trip to Taiwan last week.
The seven-strong delegation was led by Sonny Leong, a member of the House of Lords, who’s also co-chair of the “Labor Friends of Taiwan” group. Sharon Hodgson MP and Diana Johnson MP, chairs of the finance and home affairs committees in the House of Commons, also attended.
Meeting time: They met Taiwan’s outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and the new top legislator Han Kuo-yu, who’s from the opposition.
Chinese threats: The visit came as China upped the ante about the use of force over Taiwan. “The more rampant Taiwan independence separatist activities become, the less likely it is for a peaceful resolution,” Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Thursday.
Beijing vs Labour: “In disregard of our firm opposition, some Labour Lords and MPs are visiting China's Taiwan region. This is a blatant violation of the one-China principle and serious interference in China's internal affairs,” the Chinese embassy to London said in a statement on Sunday.
HIGH-LEVEL HACK TARGETS: Britain’s Europe minister Nusrat Ghani and the Czech Republic’s Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský emerged as the most high-level targets of Beijing’s cyberespionage campaign revealed last week. While they were not yet ministers while the cyberattacks happened, the revelation added further pressure on China to address the growing diplomatic concerns.
Response from Prague: “This just proves the assessment in our Security Strategy, which states that the rising assertiveness of China is a systemic challenge that needs to be dealt with in coordination with our trans-Atlantic allies,” Lipavský told POLITICO in a comment. Here’s my full report.
TRANSLATING WASHINGTON
BEIJING BLASTS BLINKEN'S HK SANCTIONS: The Chinese government has lashed out at new State Department sanctions imposed in response to worsening repression in Hong Kong including its new Article 23 security law (dished in this edition of China Watcher). State "is taking steps to impose new visa restrictions on multiple Hong Kong officials responsible for the intensifying crackdown on rights and freedoms," Secretary of State Blinken said in a statement on Friday.
Beijing came out swinging. "The U.S. side disregards facts, makes irresponsible remarks about Hong Kong affairs, and levels groundless accusations at the Chinese Central Government and the Hong Kong SAR government," the spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, said in a statement on Saturday.
U.S., JAPAN, PHILIPPINES JOINT NAVAL PATROLS: The U.S., Japan and the Philippines will launch joint naval patrols in the South China Sea later this year, according to a U.S. official and a foreign diplomat familiar with the planning. It's a major move to counter China in the region — and one likely to elicit a strong response from Beijing. Phelim and POLITICO's Alexander Ward and Lara Seligman have the full story here.
TAIWAN NAVY CHIEF ON U.S. TOUR: Taiwan's Navy Commander Tang Hua is in the U.S, this week to meet with his American counterparts. Tang's itinerary includes a stop at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii, attending the Sea-Air-Space conference outside of Washington and a possible meeting with Admiral Lisa Franchetti, chief of U.S. Naval Operations, VOA reported on Friday.
Beijing isn't pleased. The Biden administration should "immediately stop official interactions and military contact with Taiwan, and refrain from sending any wrong message to 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Friday.
USTR SCORCHES CHINA'S 'HARMFUL' TRADE POLICIES:: The office of the U.S. Trade Representative lashed out at Beijing's longstanding trade and industrial policies that undermine the competitiveness of U.S. firms in the Chinese market.
USTR unpacked a litany of criticism including "far-reaching and harmful industrial plans" and "forced or pressured technology transfer" by U.S. firms to Chinese companies, in its annual Foreign Trade Barriers report published on Friday.
TRANSLATING CHINA
UNUSUAL VISIT: It’s very rare for China’s leader Xi to send an invitation to a president-elect. He made an exception this week with Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto, who began a trip to China yesterday, less than two weeks after he was declared the winner to succeed equally China-friendly Joko Widodo.
In Xi’s remarks: “China views its relations with Indonesia from a strategic and long-term perspective, and is willing to deepen all-round strategic cooperation with Indonesia,” the Chinese president said Monday, according to state media Xinhua.
Significance: The choice of China by Prabowo, Indonesia’s defense minister, as his first visit as president-elect fully reflects the high level of China-Indonesia relations, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin.
Prabowo eyes Chinese defense supply? “I also commit to fulfil the needs of Indonesia’s military hardware, boost cooperation in the defence industry and establish productive dialogues,” Prabowo said in a statement issued during the trip, per Reuters. Previously he said he would commit to Indonesia’s policy of nonalignment, seeking to keep good ties with both Beijing and Washington.
IN HEADLINES
AL JAZEERA: The high cost of being a whistleblower in China.
BBC: Eight Chinese migrants found dead on Mexican beach.
BLOOMBERG: It's getting harder for women to deliver babies in China.
ECONOMIST: How Xi Jinping plans to overtake America.
NEW YORK TIMES: China's advancing efforts to influence the U.S. election raise alarms.
MANY THANKS: To editor Christian Oliver, Laurens Cerulus, reporters Mark Scott, Camille Gijs, Antonia Zimmermann, Mathieu Pollet, and producer Seb Starcevic.
This email was sent to salenamartine360.news1@blogger.com
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