With the Maldives** opening its "first visit of the new year" this week, the curtain of China's diplomacy in 2024 is slowly opening. On Thursday, Beijing welcomed a second guest, the Belgian prime minister.
According to CCTV news, Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo of the Kingdom of Belgium arrived in Beijing on the morning of the 11th and will start a two-day official visit. On the eve of De Croo's arrival in China, Belgian Foreign Minister Hajia Rabib visited Shanghai as the "vanguard."
This is De Croo's first visit to China since taking office in 2020 and the first visit by a Belgian prime minister since 2016. De Croo is also the first European head of state to make an official visit to China in 2024.
A number of "firsts" have undoubtedly attracted much attention for this New Year's visit, and what new atmosphere and new impetus will it bring to China-Belgium and China-EU relations in 2024?
Important signals
Belgium, a country in Western Europe, is a small country with a small population, with an area of just over 30,000 square kilometers and a population of about 11.8 million.
However, Belgium plays a pivotal role on the European map – it is one of the six founding members of the European Community, the predecessor of the European Union, and the capital Brussels is home to the headquarters of the European Union and NATO.
Belgium is also known as the "Capital of Europe" or "Heart of Europe".
On January 1 this year, Belgium took over the "scepter" of the EU again after 14 years and assumed the rotating presidency of the EU, starting a six-month rotation period.
From the "capital of Europe" and the "principal" of EU affairs in the first half of this year, Belgian Prime Minister De Croo chose to visit China at the beginning of the year, what important signals did he send?
Feng Zhongping, director of the Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and president of the China Society for European Studies, believes that it can be interpreted from three levels.
First of all, this visit reflects the multi-faceted and multi-layered characteristics of China-EU relations.
De Croo is a two-time visit, both as Prime Minister of Belgium and as head of the EU Presidency, so the visit is both bilateral and EU-level.
Second, the visit reflects that China-Belgium and China-EU relations have entered a new stage of steady and positive development.
As far as China-Belgium relations are concerned, the relations between the two countries can be regarded as a model of friendship and mutual benefit between large and small states.
Historically, Belgium has had several firsts in the West. It is one of the first Western countries to provide loans to China, and it is also one of the first Western countries to export advanced technology to China and establish industrial investment with China.
This is the second visit by a Belgian prime minister to China in eight years, and it has been four years since the last visit by a high-level Belgian delegation.
Belgium** said the visit provided an opportunity for China and Belgium to resume high-level contacts after the pandemic had blocked exchanges between the two sides.
As far as China-EU relations are concerned, De Croau's visit to China is also a continuation of the good momentum of high-level interaction between China and the EU over the past year or so, and promotes the continued steady and positive development of bilateral relations.
Thirdly, the visit also shows the importance that the EU attaches to China, China-Belgium and China-EU relations in the face of multiple political, economic and security challenges this year.
At the political level, the first half of this year is a critical period for Belgium and the European Union. In June, the European Parliament and the EU's governing bodies will hold five-year general elections. At the same time, Belgium will also usher in a quadrennial parliamentary election.
At a time when there are growing right-leaning and populist trends in European society, there are fears that far-right parties will expand their seats in this year's European Parliament elections, further complicating future legislation.
At the economic level, due to the high cost of living, weak external demand, monetary tightening policies and geopolitical conflicts, the European economic recovery is facing great uncertainty, growth tends to stagnate, and the eurozone is even considered to be at risk of stagflation.
Eurobarometer poll data from the fourth quarter of last year showed that 73% of respondents believe that the standard of living will fall in 2024.
At the security level, Europe is facing two geopolitical crises at the same time: the Ukraine crisis and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. At present, the spillover effect of the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict is intensifying, and once it expands, it will have a huge impact on Europe, which may further tear European countries apart, and the risk of terrorist attacks will also increase.
At the global level, Europe, like other countries and regions, faces challenges from climate change, energy transition, emerging technologies, etc.
Analysts point out that De Croo will be responsible for coordinating the EU's policy agenda during the six-month period, and his visit to China at the beginning of Belgium's EU presidency shows that China is indispensable for Europe in responding to economic, security and global challenges.
Key topics
According to a statement released by De Cro's office, the visit will discuss a wide range of issues related to China-Belgium relations.
In Feng Zhongping's view, the leaders of China and Belgium will focus on three issues.
First, we need to plan for the future development of China-Belgium and China-EU relations.
Previously, due to the impact of the epidemic and the Ukraine crisis, China-Belgium and China-EU relations have experienced some twists and turns. Now, with the resumption and continuation of high-level exchanges, the relationship has begun to enter a new stage of stability and improvement, and it is necessary to plan for the future development of the relationship.
It is worth mentioning that this year also marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of an all-round friendly and cooperative partnership between China and Belgium, and it is also interesting to look forward to how the leaders of China and Belgium will further deepen their bilateral relations.
Second, seek cooperation in areas of common interest.
For example, the two sides have a lot of common interests and room for cooperation in economic and trade cooperation, addressing global challenges, and dealing with regional hotspot issues.
Third, we should work together to find solutions to the differences and contradictions in our relationship.
At the same time, the outside world generally believes that promoting China-Belgium economic and trade ties and resolving China-EU economic and trade frictions are the focus of De Cro's trip.
At the China-Belgium level, Belgium is China's seventh largest partner in the EU, and China is Belgium's third largest partner outside the EU (as of 2022).
At present, many Chinese companies play an important role in the Belgian economy. For example, Geely has a Volvo car production plant in Ghent; COSCO SHIPPING operates the Port of Zeebrugge, which merged with the Port of Antwerp to become Europe's largest export port; Alibaba has also set up a distribution center in Liège.
* De Croo hopes to seek more opportunities for Belgium in economic, trade and investment cooperation with China.
At the EU-Central level, under the EU Presidency, Belgium has set out six major policy priorities, including strengthening economic competitiveness. De Croo is expected to include it on the list of topics for his visit to China.
Feng Zhongping said that at present, Europe's core concern about China is economic and trade issues. Last year, economic and trade issues occupied a prominent position among the topics discussed during the EU's visit to China.
These include: the EU's concern about the imbalance with China. The EU's deficit with China has reached about 400 billion euros.
Friction between China and Europe. In October last year, the European Union launched a countervailing investigation into Chinese electric vehicles. Last week, China launched an anti-dumping investigation into distilled wine imported from the European Union, according to Reference News Network.
There is also concern about when the "frozen" EU-China investment agreement will be unfrozen. "The above issues urgently need to be resolved through consultations between the two sides. Feng Zhongping said.
However, China and Europe are large in size and the scale of investment is also rising steadily, and friction and even conflict are inevitable. Feng Zhongping said, but the endogenous momentum of China-EU relations is strong, such as the green economy and other new economic growth points are also emerging, coupled with Europe's own economic growth is weak, the need to open up markets and explore cooperation opportunities. As the world's second largest economy, China's importance to European countries is self-evident. Therefore, it is in the interests of both sides to promote economic and trade cooperation and seek mutual benefit and win-win results.
In addition, the leaders of China and Belgium will also exchange views on how to resolve the Ukraine crisis and the new round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Looking ahead
Since the resumption of high-level exchanges between China and the EU after the pandemic at the end of 2022, the two sides have come and gone closely and interacted closely.
In the past 2023, China-EU relations have shown a good momentum of consolidation and development. Heads of state, dignitaries and leaders of EU institutions from France, Spain and other countries have visited China one after another. China's premier and foreign minister also visited Europe.
Just last month, the China-EU Summit returned to offline for the first time in four years, providing strategic guidance on further deepening China-EU relations.
In addition, the high-level dialogues between the two sides in the fields of strategy, economy and trade, green and digital have also achieved rich results.
Now, the Belgian Prime Minister's visit to China has turned the first page of the "calendar" of China-EU exchanges in 2024, does it indicate that there are more "programs" to be expected this year?
From a positive perspective, in addition to the Belgian Prime Minister's visit to China, there are indeed many opportunities conducive to China-EU exchanges this year, such as the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, and the upcoming annual meeting of the Davos Forum.
According to the news released by China on the 11th, Premier Li Qiang will attend the 2024 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum from January 14 to 17 and pay an official visit to Switzerland and Ireland.
However, there are still uncertain clouds floating in the "skies" over Central Europe.
In terms of relations with China, the Belgian presidency of the European Union still emphasizes the EU's triple positioning of "cooperation, competition and adversariality" and the "de-risking" strategy when announcing its policy priorities.
In the economic and trade field, the European Commission is expected to release an economic security strategy this month, which will cover areas such as foreign investment review, foreign investment review and export control.
In the future of the EU's relations with China, cooperation, competition and prevention will coexist, cooperation and competition in China-EU relations will be intertwined, and the importance and complexity of the relationship between the two sides will also increase simultaneously. Feng Zhongping said.
On the one hand, China and the EU share a wide range of common interests in the economic and trade fields and in addressing global challenges, and the bilateral relationship will remain resilient and dynamic.
On the other hand, due to the economic and trade frictions between the two sides, the differences in values, the evolution of the situation in Ukraine, the United States in 2024 and other factors, will have an impact on China-EU relations.
However, Feng Zhongping still has expectations for China-EU relations in 2024.
He said that China-EU relations will stabilize in 2022 and continue to stabilize and improve in 2023. Looking ahead to 2024, whether it is China-Belgium relations, China's relations with other EU member states, or China-EU relations as a whole, we look forward to good and positive interaction between the two sides on the basis of equal dialogue, mutual respect and mutual benefit, so as to promote the development of relations through interaction.
**: Shangguan News
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