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By STUART LAU
with PHELIM KINE
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XI'S MINIMALIST RESPONSE TO TRUMP SHOOTING: The Chinese government is being relatively tight-lipped in its official response to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday.
Beijing is "following" the incident and Chinese leader Xi Jinping "has expressed sympathies to former president Trump," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian declined to respond to a question on Monday about how Xi communicated with Trump, so we don't know if the Chinese leader phoned Trump, faxed him, emailed him or sent a message via Chinese diplomats.
China's Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng added a slightly more human touch by wishing Trump "a speedy recovery" in an X post on Sunday.
ONGOING TODAY: The Communist Party yesterday commenced a key session, the third plenum, which is held roughly once every five years to map out the general direction of the country’s long-term social and economic policies. Presided by Xi, the meeting ends on Thursday with a plan to lay out China’s policy direction for the next five years and beyond. Reuters has more.
Already Xinhua has called Xi “the Reformer” in a 10,000-word feature article, which blasts the U.S. for sanctioning Huawei and starting a trade war. It also praised Serbia — the only European country mentioned — for joining the Belt and Road initiative.
WHAT A WEEK, HUH? CAPTAIN, IT’S TUESDAY. This is Stuart Lau reporting from Brussels. Phelim Kine will write to you from the U.S. on Thursday.
TRUMP-XI WRESTLE FOR ORBÁN
FRESH FROM THE CONVENTION: In a widely expected move, Trump announced Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice-presidential pick at the Republican National Convention yesterday. The 39-year-old Trump critic-turned-loyalist’s stance on Beijing can be neatly summed up in four words: “I don’t like China.”
LOOKING AT YOU, HUNGARY: Vance has in recent weeks stepped up pressure on Europe to build up its defenses against Russia so that the U.S. can focus on China. In a recent TV interview, Vance also had interesting remarks about Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who’s both pro-Trump and pro-China at the same time. Orbán just visited Mar-a-Lago days before the shooting attack that injured Trump.
“Why is Viktor Orbán getting closer to China? In part because American leadership is not making smart decisions,” Vance said. “We are pushing other nations into the arms of the Chinese, because we don’t make enough stuff, because we pursue a ridiculous foreign policy very often. We have to be more self-reliant.”
Asked about Europe getting closer to China: Vance said the fact that Europe “has become weaker is because they’ve de-industrialized … because they’ve pursued a green energy agenda following the lead of the Biden administration and that necessarily empowers China and Russia.”
Taiwan over Ukraine? Defending his argument for reducing support for Ukraine, Vance wrote in the New York Times in April that the Patriot air defense systems sought by Kyiv were equally important to Taipei. "These weapons are not only needed by Ukraine. If China were to set its sights on Taiwan, the Patriot missile system would be critical to its defense. In fact, the United States has promised to send Taiwan nearly $900 million worth of Patriot missiles, but delivery of those weapons and other essential resources has been severely delayed, partly because of shortages caused by the war in Ukraine," he wrote.
Talking of Orbán: The Hungarian PM's decision to visit Moscow and Beijing for a “peace mission” toward ending the war in Ukraine — without the EU’s mandate — continues to backfire in Brussels. The European Commission has asked its commissioners not to attend informal ministers' meetings during the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, Barbara Moens and Pieter Haeck report.
THREE MINUTES WITH …
RUBEN BRECKELMANS, the new Dutch defense minister, tells Stuart why the new government would take an eagle-eyed approach to Beijing. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Why are the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions intertwined?
“If Ukraine is losing this war, then it will only give more encouragement to China. Ukraine is the frontline of our European security, European freedom, but it’s also the frontline of freedom and security in the Indo-Pacific, because China is looking at Ukraine and then [it will] learn the lessons when it comes to Taiwan.”
A Dutch frigate last month sailed through the Taiwan Strait. Will there be a similar plan under your time?
“Under my time, we will do it again — also to show that we stand firm when it comes to international law.”
How would you describe Chinese-Russian relations?
“I do [think] that China is providing support diplomatically, economically, financially — also with dual use goods they are providing. Russia has changed its tactic from a three-day war to now a three-year war, but it might become a three-decade war because they know that the support of China is endless.”
What do you think about EU sanctions on China?
“It’s good that we now have put sanctions on some of the Chinese entities in which we see that they are helping to circumvent sanctions. I think we should have done it earlier.”
How do you see NATO calling China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine?
“It’s good that NATO is also making this expressly, that we’re not only fighting against Russia, we are fighting against a partnership between Russia, Iran and North Korea, which is providing weapons very directly. China is also part of it, because they give backing, and they are giving the support, enabling Russia to do what they do.”
Are you finding support with Indo-Pacific like-minded partners?
“I’m very happy with for example Japan and South Korea, [which] have provided support in the past to Ukraine. I hope that they are willing to provide more military support. Of course, I understand their concern as well, because, for example, South Korea is facing a nuclear neighbor, so I do fully understand that they [have their own need].”
IN BERLIN
GERMANY LEAVES ROLE FOR HUAWEI IN 5G: We need to take a second look at the German decision on phasing Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE out of their telecom networks.
Berlin announced its new policy on Chinese 5G on Thursday, saying it had struck an agreement with telecom operators to scrap Chinese equipment out of the core network by the end of 2026 and radio access parts (RAN) by the end of 2029. The move was hailed as a win by China hawks and German allies that took similar steps years before.
But there's fine print. 5G security connoisseurs were quick to point out the devil is in the details with this German ban. The deal is one between the government and operators, and the information released by the Interior Ministry said the restrictions in RAN affected "critical management systems in the access and transport networks."
Under the hood, RAN (which are the masts and antennas and infrastructure connecting it to core networks) is the biggest investment of 5G networks — meaning Huawei could continue to benefit from major market share in Germany.
"Critical management systems" is also a term that is not used in the EU's 5G risk assessment document that laid the groundwork for national security measures in 2019.
What's more, the document deemed the entire RAN part of the network "high" in terms of sensitivity — including base station infrastructure, which in Germany's model could still be provided by Huawei it seems.
What people are saying:
— Noah Barkin at Rhodium and the German Marshall Fund called it "a dirty deal" that "may end up doing very little to restrict the role" of Huawei and ZTE.
— Norbert Röttgen, a China-hawkish center-right member of the German Bundestag, said on X "the agreement on the access network is insufficient because it only concerns the management system. Huawei software can still be installed in the antennas after 2029." He added that network operators were given a soft ride for having kept investing in Chinese kit since the previous government installed a security check in 2021.
EU-CHINA TECH & TRADE
EU QUIZZES CAR CHIP MAKERS ON CHINESE COMPETITION: The EU executive has sent a survey to European microchip manufacturers, in a push to protect one of its few areas of strength in the global chips supply chain from Chinese competition, Pieter Haeck write in to report.
Backdrop: Europe is still a leading force in manufacturing legacy chips for the automotive industry and household appliances. A May report showed that German Infineon, Dutch NXP and French-Italian STMicro are three of the five largest suppliers in the car chip market. EU officials are now worried that subsidized Chinese firms are gunning for the bloc’s champions.
Fill in the blanks: A survey was circulated among EU-based automotive chip manufacturers. The tone of the survey is clear: Are Chinese competitors undercutting Europe's lead manufacturers (such as Infineon, NXP, and STMicro)?
The Commission asks manufacturers if there is an "alternative product" or product family of a Chinese manufacturer in their space, what the price of that product is and how it compares to their product.
Where will this go? Hard to tell. Survey results are not expected before the end of the Summer. The industry is watchful for possible European action against China and subsequent distortions of the chips supply chain, potentially by targeting excessive subsidies from Beijing.
For POLITICO Europe Pro readers: Here’s Pieter’s full story.
TRANSLATING WASHINGTON
CHINA SKEWERS NEW TIBET LAW: Beijing has pounced on President Joe Biden's move to sign into law the " Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act" on Friday. The law "grossly interferes in China's domestic affairs, undermines China's interests and sends a severely wrong signal to the 'Tibet independence' forces," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday.
The law seeks to jumpstart "direct dialogue, without preconditions, with the Dalai Lama, or his representatives, to seek a settlement that resolves differences and leads to a negotiated agreement on Tibet," the White House said in a statement. The law also directs the U.S. government to counter "PRC disinformation on Tibet."
BEIJING BLASTS BLINKEN FOR 'NEFARIOUS AGENDA': Beijing has come out swinging against U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's criticism of China's failure to respect Philippine territorial waters in the South China Sea. Blinken's comments reflect "political manipulation aimed at using allies to destabilize the South China Sea and the region and advance the nefarious agenda of going after China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Friday.
That was a response to Blinken's statement last week on the eight anniversary of an International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea ruling against China's claims in the South China Sea urging Beijing to respect the ruling and "cease its dangerous and destabilizing conduct" in the region.
DEPT. OF STATE: RELIGIOUS REPRESSION REAPS VISA RESTRICTIONS: The U.S. State Department will impose targeted visa restrictions against unnamed Chinese officials for their role in human rights abuses. The restrictions are a response to those officials' "involvement in repression of marginalized religious and ethnic communities," in China, State said in a statement Friday. The statement referenced "the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang…[and] persistent human rights abuses in Tibet."
The Chinese government responded by calling those allegations "smears" and warned of the visa restrictions may reap tit-for-tat reprisals. "If the U.S. refuses to change course, China will not flinch and will respond in kind," said Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu.
IN HEADLINES
BBC: Tainan: the 400-year-old cradle of Taiwanese culture.
WALL STREET JOURNAL: The one-child policy supercharged China's economic miracle. Now it's paying the price.
WASHINGTON POST: China was home for 25 years, but I can’t go back.
MANY THANKS: To editor Laurens Cerulus, reporter Pieter Haeck and producer Ziyi Wei.
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