China says EU's export policies don't 'make sense'

BEIJING

China said Wednesday European Union export policies towards Beijing do not "make sense", on the eve of a high-level summit in the Chinese capital.

"If the EU imposes severe restrictions on the export of high-tech products to China on the one hand, and hopes to significantly increase exports to China on the other, I'm afraid it doesn't make sense," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen, top EU diplomat Josep Borrell and Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, will be in Beijing on Thursday for the EU-China summit.

It will be the first in-person summit between the Brussels chiefs and Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang since 2019, and one of the key talking points will be trade.

Von der Leyen told AFP in an interview ahead of the talks that "European leaders will not tolerate over time an imbalance in the trade relationship".

"But we prefer to have negotiated solutions," she added.

Wang on Wednesday told a regular press conference that "China is a trustworthy and indispensable partner of the EU".

"Properly handling differences through dialogue and consultations is an important thing to go through for the development of China-EU relations," he said.

"We hope that the European side will work with China to meet each other halfway, create a positive atmosphere for the successful holding of the China-EU leaders' meeting, and make joint efforts for the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations," he added.