EU-China Summit: A Joining of Hands or Growing Rift?
YuChen Ding
17 September 2025
As the 50th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic relations passes, for the first time since 2019, EU leaders sat down with their Chinese counterparts in Beijing, against the backdrop of continued tense relations. The talks that transpired during the summit were undoubtedly a disappointment for both parties, but hope is not entirely lost. In this brief, I examine the rifts, commonalities, and potentials of this dicey, yet crucial, relationship.
The European delegation arrived in Beijing diligently on July 24, including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa, and High Representative Kaja Kallas. They were welcomed by the Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, arguably the two highest political representatives of China.
What did both parties wish to get out of this historical meeting? For starters, Beijing had hoped that with the Trump administration’s sudden abandonment of the long-lasting transatlantic cooperation, Europe would warm up to the idea of strengthening the strained EU-China ties. On the other hand, European leadership is hoping to assert itself in the unbalanced EU-China trade relationship and to get Beijing to cut ties with its regressive northern neighbor, Russia, which is currently instigating warfare in the EU's backyard.
Marked by von der Leyen herself as an “inflection point” in EU-China relations, the meeting took place in high times of both geopolitical and economic strains. A few months prior, the EU had implemented tariffs against Chinese electric vehicles, with their Chinese counterpart enacting retaliatory claims of European products like pork and cognac. During the meeting, Beijing also flexed its rare earth muscle, leveraging its unique abundance of critical raw materials against an increasingly accusatory EU. The EU has long held grudges against China’s aggressive trading practices, amid the large influx of Chinese goods flooding the EU market and the staggering trade deficit of €305.8 billion in 2024. Yet Beijing seems to remain steady with its position, knowing it holds the upper hand in trade negotiations from its recent win against Washington.
In the arena of geopolitics, the EU delegation didn’t manage to leave with much to show for. As Brussels expressed its firm wishes for Beijing to distance itself from the aggressor and cease fanning the flame of war in Ukraine, Beijing responded begrudgingly by denying its financial involvement, as well as stating that China has never expressed sentiments of support towards Russia’s War against Ukraine. The EU is eager to urge Beijing to defy its silent status quo, but no tangible results have emerged from this dialogue. With the joint meeting between the PRC, DPRK, and the Russian Federation taking place at the Chinese Victory Day Parade in Beijing in September, it is more than unlikely that Beijing is ready to abandon its long-term ally, especially when Brussels has chosen not to fully embrace Beijing as a strategic partner.
Yet not all hope has been lost. Both Beijing and Brussels expressed sentiment in the continued normalization of all-level cooperation in critical areas of environmentalism, digitization, and green energy transition, upholding the mutually agreed commitment to joint global challenges on human rights and climate change. The two parties also stressed the importance of continued support for international development, channeling unwavering commitment to multilateralist international organizations like the United Nations, hinting at the US’s abandonment of its formal commitment towards the international development and aid system. Nevertheless, in the current global climate of multipolarity, there are always avenues of collaboration between the established normative power and the ambitious regional hegemon. More convergence was made when both parties expressed explicit wishes aimed at increased cooperation in green finance, AI governance, and digital standards involving establishing rules on mutually-recognized trademarks.
So what’s next for the EU-China relationship? Ultimately, the summit did not produce any tangible results for either party. But the meeting served as a show of hands for both parties, an indication of their political priorities and potential next moves. As Beijing gears up to fulfill its long-held geopolitical ambition in the Indo-Pacific, the EU delegation did not neglect its long-term strategic ally in Asia, Japan, as the bilateral EU-Japan summit took place right before the delegation arrived in Beijing. In all, China and the EU share common commitments to pressing global issues on climate and digitization, as well as the self-alienation of the US in its global involvement. Yet the two bodies' geopolitical priorities diverge vastly, especially considering the juxtaposition of opinion on Russia’s War against Ukraine. One also cannot neglect China’s domination in its global exports, industrial overcapacity, and abundance of rare earth minerals, which have already proven to be points of contingency in the strained EU-China partnership.
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Author Information
Hailing from Beijing, Baltimore, and now settled in Brussels. YuChen Ding is a multi-lingual political scientist with academic expertise in EU-China-US hegemonic rivalry, peacebuilding with a gender focus, and the Deradicalization of Political Extremists. With a background in the public sector and NGO work, she is currently contributing to Advocacy and Communications at Make Mothers Matter, a feminist NGO advancing mothers’ rights across Europe. Her previous positions include working under the Women, Peace and Security framework at the European Institute of Peace as a Project Coordinator, as well as Communications Assistant, advancing African farmers’ economic mobility at EUCORD. In her spare time, YuChen enjoys learning about various cultures through cuisines, travels, and reading. She is also an avid boulderer and weight lifter.
YuChen can be contacted through the following link:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuchen-ding726/
