For five months, debate has raged on how the return of US President Donald Trump, which has upended the West, will alter Europe’s relations with China. With a stream of senior European officials headed for Beijing, we may be about to get some answers. Alongside top-level figures from Brussels, which maintains a tough line towards Beijing, are representatives of capitals from Europe’s west and south that have advocated a softer approach and distance from Washington.

Each will be asking for something slightly different.

Their demands will display the competing interests between the European Union’s members and institutions at a moment of geopolitical chaos that is predicted to create new fissures in the 27-member bloc’s often schizophrenic approach to China.

Beijing’s responses, meanwhile, will signal whether it is in the mood for making concessions to Europe which could buoy a relationship that has sunk to fresh lows in recent years.

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“I am pretty pessimistic – I don’t buy this idea of a Chinese charm offensive,” said Marc Julienne, director of the Centre for Asian Studies at the French Institute of International Relations.

“Wang Yi said some nice words at the Munich Security Conference, but I remember when Trump first came to power [in 2017], I really felt this charm offensive,” Julienne said, pointing to enthusiastic approaches to Europe to work together on climate, Iran nuclear talks, and geopolitics. “Now, I just don’t see them ready to make any compromises.”

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