Trip has not been confirmed by Beijing and no official itinerary announced but speculation suggests Xi may stop in Serbia and France
Ding Yifan, a Europe specialist at the State Council’s Development Research Centre, said a trip by Xi would be a chance for China and Europe to reduce “misperceptions” about each other.
“The mass media in China thinks Europe is a follower of the US … the mainstream media in Europe also thinks China supports Russia [in the Ukraine conflict],” he said.
“The main thing is that the two sides are caught in tensions and do not trust each other. Therefore, these political leaders want to strengthen communication through these political exchanges.”
China’s relations with Europe have been largely strained in recent years over the Ukraine conflict and escalating rivalries between Beijing and Washington. While many European countries remain suspicious over Beijing’s ties with Moscow, they are also under immense pressure to join US efforts to limit China’s access to critical material and technologies over national security concerns.
Both sides have also traded accusations of unfair competition and protectionism about the EU’s trade imbalance of about €400 billion (US$433 billion).
Sebastian Contin Trillo-Figueroa, an EU-Asia analyst with the Asia Global Institute of the University of Hong Kong, said the EU-China summit held in Beijing in December and co-chaired by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, marked a “significant mutual shift in perspective”.
“Both sides aimed for deeper mutual understanding and made efforts to prevent conflict,” Trillo-Figueroa said.
He said both sides now acknowledged the importance of strategic dialogue to focus on core issues such as their trade relations, which indicated a shift towards “pragmatic realpolitik rather than symbolic disputes”.
The summit in December saw the EU leaders stand firm on the long-standing economic imbalances between Beijing and Brussels, and China’s business links in aiding Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine. Both sides rejected the idea of decoupling from each other and agreed to continue pragmatic cooperation in areas such as climate change and artificial intelligence.
Trillo-Figueroa added that while China was moving to revive in-person diplomacy with Europe, it prioritised Germany and France. But if Serbia was chosen as a first nation to visit in Xi’s Europe tour, it would send a “strategic message” to other European leaders.
“Selecting Serbia for this first visit makes a bold diplomatic statement, potentially reshaping the priorities of European leaders in their future engagements,” he said.
Belgrade has also maintained close ties with Moscow during the Ukraine war, frustrating many European nations.
Ding said France was likely to be a destination on Xi’s potential Europe tour because this year marked the 60th anniversary of China-France bilateral ties, and “France’s stance is very critical in the West”.
Victor Gao, vice-president of the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation and chair professor of Soochow University in Jiangsu province, said China was expected to make the same call again if Xi went to Europe.
“China is very willing to dance a tango with Europe, to focus on economic and technological cooperation … but not engage in ideological [confrontation],” he said.
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