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Post an EU jobChinese Premier Wen Jiabao has embarked on a bridge-building tour of Europe to focus on economic matters. But the omission of France from his itinerary adds a political twist to the visit in the wake of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama.
On 26 November 2008, Beijing abruptly cancelled the EU-China summit scheduled for 1 December in Lyon (EurActiv 27/11/08), citing the fact that the Dalai Lama would be visiting several EU countries at the same time and was set to meet with heads of state and government as well as presidents of European institutions.
It was the first time such an event had been cancelled since the first annual EU-China summit took place in 1998 in London. The Chinese government was also believed to have been angered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama in Gdansk, Poland, at a gathering of Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Anti-French sentiment in China was heightened in April 2008 following pro-Tibetan protests in Europe during the Olympic Torch Relay. There was a particularly angry reaction to violence at the Parisian leg of the relay, when the torch was prised from the hands of Jin Jing, a Chinese paralympic athlete.
Unrest in China resulted in an unofficial boycott of French brands and public demonstrations outside Chinese branches of French supermarket chain Carrefour.
Wen's visit, dubbed a "tour of confidence" by Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Hongbo, takes in the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland followed by stops in Germany, Belgium, Spain and the UK. He will meet leaders of EU institutions and the Czech EU presidency in Brussels on Friday, January 30.
Paris has played down the snub, noting that the Chinese premier is not visiting all 27 EU member states. The Chinese have not commented on the thinking behind their itinerary.
Chinese official state media, Xinhua, said Wen will focus on China's ongoing economic reforms and look at ways of boosting China-EU cooperation. He will also look to join the international community's efforts to find ways of weathering the global financial storm.
"Demand from China and its economic growth will serve as an impetus for the world economy to recover from the downturn," read a commentary by the official Xinhua news agency on Mr Wen's trip.
The Financial Times reports that Wen is expected to make the case that China's main contribution to resolving the economic crisis will be to maintain relatively high growth, fuelled partly by a fiscal spending plan.
Also high on the agenda will be China's role in addressing climate change, as the countdown continues to the Copenhagen summit in December. China, like other developing economies, has pushed for developed economies to shoulder the greatest burden in reducing carbon emissions.
Beijing believes it should be allowed benefit from industrial development in the 21st century, just as Western nations enjoyed the industrial revolution over the past 200 years, but the EU is stressing that China relies heavily on coal for power generation. China has expressed a willingness to reduce emissions as part of a global deal on climate change but is insisting on the transfer of clean technology from developed states.
Late last year, ahead of the cancelled summit, Wen said rich countries should give up their "unsustainable lifestyles" and do more to help poor nations to adapt to the effects of climate change.
However, human rights and media freedom issues are also likely to be raised by European politicians ahead of the Chinese delegation's arrival in Brussels on Friday. Several MEPs have joined representatives from 'Reporters Without Borders' to lobby for uncensored Chinese language channel, NTDTV, to be put back on air.
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