Wang Yi about to speak at Munich Security Conference now, in conversation with @MSCheusgen.

Then Blinken, Baerbock, Jaishankar share a panel immediately after.

🧵I will post some of the main points in a thread here... @MSCheusgen Wang says in 2023, the "global economy was weighed down by protectionism and the abuse of the security concept and the international system was impaired by unilateralism and bloc politics"

China's "universal periodic review" is underway.

A peer-review process under the UN Human Rights Council, 163 countries are expected to speak for 45 seconds each on China's human rights record since 2018. Chinese envoy Chen Xu says all "56 ethnic groups in China are equal", talks up the Belt and Road Initiative as advancing human rights through development", and says claims all "200 million religious believers in China... exist in harmony"...

Wild, wild story.

After an audit found that Volkswagen's Xinjiang plant had no forced labour, the firm's official LinkedIn account posted a note distancing itself from the findings.

Note below, story from FT

ft.com/content/46b37a…
In a week when the EU is trying to finalise its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (it also hopes to conclude a forced labour ban in the new year), instances like this show the challenges facing any company with a presence in Xinjiang.

Scoop: Xi Jinping told EU leaders that Europe is a "vassal" of nobody, debunking an accusation often levelled by China's state media and diplomats on the ground

Inside account of yesterday's EU-China summit

scmp.com/news/china/dip… There are few deliverables but EU sources felt they were - finally - being listened to by Beijing, even if expectations are very well managed on the long-term trajectory of the relationship

On trade and Russia, no major movement, but EU wasn't totally shut down as feared

NEW Extensive language on China in G7 leaders' statement, on eve of EU-China summit

"We're not decoupling or turning inwards. At same time, we recognize economic resilience requires de-risking and diversifying... will reduce excessive dependencies in our critical supply chains"



"We will seek to address the challenges posed by China’s non-market policies and practices, which distort the global economy. We will counter malign practices, such as illegitimate technology transfer or data disclosure"

Scoop!

EU lawmakers have written to the commission demanding to know how Chinese state-linked companies were given roles advising its answer to the Belt and Road Initiative.

scmp.com/news/china/dip… A cross-party group of MEPs sent questions to the commission on Thursday asking whether the firms will be excluded from the Global Gateway Business Advisory Board “within the context of de-risking from China”, according to correspondence that was shared with the Post.

NEW: EU reveals first four technologies in the crosshairs of its economic security strategy, as we reported last week.

Story:
scmp.com/news/china/dip… These are: advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum, biotechnologies.

They are seen as pressing risks and the tech that can strengthen rivals' militaries, industries, and threaten human rights.

BREAKING: China removes Qin Gang as foreign minister, replacing him with his predecessor Wang Yi

scmp.com/news/china/dip… CCTV’S short statement said Wang Yi, who outranks Qin and serves as Xi’s top foreign policy aide, is the new foreign minister.

Decision to remove Qin made at special session of NPC Standing Committee, one day after the top decision-making body, the Politburo, convened on Monday.

New: Sat down with China's envoy to the EU @FuCong17 today, who said Beijing "did not commit" to stopping Chinese firms rerouting sanctioned European goods to Russia

scmp.com/news/china/dip… Comes after European Union diplomats agreed earlier this week to provisionally remove five Chinese entities from an export restriction list.

Sources said that came after a diplomatic commitment from Fu to exert pressure on the firms

scmp.com/news/china/art…

Waiting for EU internal market chief Thierry Breton, who is expected to back banning Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE from national networks, and banning them from the EU institutions' networks Breton says to date only 10 members have used EU prerogatives to restrict or refuse high risk 5G vendors.

Says this creates "serious vulnerabilities" for the EU

Exclusive!

Three Chinese / HK-based firms removed from EU sanctions list following consultations with Chinese diplomats in Brussels

scmp.com/news/china/art… Beijing has vowed to speak to the three firms that have been tentatively removed, and ensure that the flow of hi-tech goods to the Russian war machine stops.

European Parliament will tonight debate a resolution entitled:

"The deterioration of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, notably the case of Jimmy Lai"

🧵 The final text names three deteriorations

1. The national security law: "fundamental freedoms, rule of law, judiciary’s independence in Hong Kong have alarmingly deteriorated"
2. "Trumped up charges" on Jimmy Lai and refusal to allow British lawyer to represent him

Here's Germany's new, first ever national security strategy (in English)

It comes ahead of next month's China strategy and has, in total, six mentions of China

nationalesicherheitsstrategie.de/en.html Nothing too revelatory within those mentions.

1. "Some countries are attempting to reshape the current international order, driven by their perception of systemic rivalry. In this international context, China is a partner, competitor and systemic rival."

New: EU big hitters push back against von der Leyen's tough economic policy on China

scmp.com/news/china/dip… At a breakfast meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, officials from France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands were among those expressing concern about “national security” references von de Leyen’s chief of cabinet, Bjorn Seibert, made in a presentation

62% of Europeans think their countries should remain neutral in a US China war over Taiwan, ECFR polling shows 43% of Europeans see China as a "necessary partner with which we must strategically cooperate", more than any other category

In his first public remarks since the storm caused by his questioning the status of post-Soviet states, China's ambassador in Paris Lu Shaye accused his interviewers of "violating journalistic ethics"...

scmp.com/news/china/dip… Remember in an unprecedented reaction, Beijing distanced itself from his remarks.

“Lu Shaye’s remarks on the Ukraine issue were not a statement of politics, but an expression of personal views during a televised debate," read a note on the Chinese embassy in France's website

Li Hui, China's envoy who toured Ukraine, EU and Russia to discuss the war, gave a presser in Beijing today, a few highlights:

Li: "risk of escalation remains high... I stayed in Kyiv 3 days, air raid sirens were sounding every single day and there were 2 massive air strikes" Li: "Conflict is in a stalemate, battlefield is fraught with uncertainty, situation is worrying."

Repeated🇨🇳mantra "as long as there is a glimmer of hope for peace we should work actively towards it, instead of allowing conflict to spread and worse still adding fuel to the fire"

NEW: Despite ‘no limits’ ties, China has moved carefully on Russian energy since Ukraine invasion

My report based on exclusive, comprehensive new research by @ResearchUI

scmp.com/news/china/dip… Russian oil and gas as a share of China’s overall imports of those products rose from 14% before the war to 16% in value terms in 2022.

It ticked up to 16.9% over the first four months of 2023, but this is far from the huge expansion many expected to see.

At EU-US trade and technology council press conference, Blinken:

"We have remarkable convergence on our approach to all the major challenges... including some of the challenges posed by China"

"None of us are looking for confrontation, none of us are looking for a Cold War" Vestager:

"Generative AI is a complete gamechanger... you have it at your fingertips, you've seen colleagues using it for writing their articles"

"We're talking about tech acceleration that's beyond belief, it's really important that citizens can see democracies can deliver"

From Chinese foreign ministry readout of Elon Musk meeting with Qin Gang

"The interests of US & China are intertwined like conjoined twins. Tesla opposes "decoupling & breaking chains", is willing to continue to expand business in China, share China's development opportunities"

https://twitter.com/fbermingham/status/1661685815209086976

Musk with the Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang

Very interesting interview of Chinese ambassador to the EU Fu Cong by @MacaesBruno

Asked why China hasn't condemned Russia

"We have our own diplomatic style. I think at this stage actually a simple condemnation does not solve the problem. It may reduce your space for diplomacy" Full transcript here

eu.china-mission.gov.cn/eng/mh/202305/…