On 15 July, Ambassador Liu Xiaoming held a webinar with Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) and Centre for European Reform (CER) on China-Europe relations after the pandemic, where he delivered a keynote speech entitled Join Hands to Contribute Positive Energy and Create a Better Future for China-Europe Relationship. Around 100 people joined the event, including David Marsh, Chairman of OMFIF, Meghnad Desai, Chairman of OMFIF Advisory Board, Charles Grant, Director of CER, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Chairman of China-Britain Business Council, members from the two think tanks, representatives from economic, financial and academic sectors in the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and South America, and journalists from 14 media agencies took part in the conference, including the BBC, Sky News, Reuters, The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Independent, CGTN, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, NBC, Agence France-Presse and bTV. The BBC and Sky News broadcast Ambassador Liu’s keynote speech and part of the Q&A session live and run the coverage in their prime time programs.

Ambassador Liu said in his speech that this year marks the 45th anniversary of China-EU diplomatic relations. Not long ago, President Xi Jinping had a meeting with President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and Premier Li Keqiang co-chaired the 22nd China-EU Summit with the two presidents. These meetings charted the course for the relationship between China and Europe after the pandemic.

Ambassador Liu pointed out, as Covid-19 continues ravaging the world, the international landscape and the global governance system face profound changes. This most serious pandemic in a century has revealed four global deficits in health, development, peace and governance. Both China and Europe are major global players, big markets and great civilizations. It is important for the two sides to join hands to contain the Covid-19 pandemic globally, recover world economy, improve global governance, and overturn the deficits.

First, China and Europe should work together to safeguard the health and safety of mankind, strengthen global defense against threats to public health, and contribute to building a global community of health for all. Second, China and Europe should work together to uphold world peace and stability, enhance strategic dialogue and step up coordination and communication on major international and regional issues. Third, China and Europe should work together to promote development and prosperity in the world by playing the role of “dual engines” of the world economy, so as to bring economic activities back on track in an orderly manner, enhance coordination on macro-economic policies, safeguard the open, stable and secure global industrial and supply chains, and uphold an open world economy. Fourth, China and Europe should work together to improve the global governance system, protect multilateralism, safeguard the international system with the UN at its core, and support the WHO in playing a leadership role in global response to COVID-19.

Ambassador Liu stressed that win-win cooperation has been the main theme in the 45 years of China-EU diplomatic relations. In face of the new challenges brought by the pandemic, this relationship has some new problems to solve. “So now, China and Europe have the same questions before them. What kind of relationship do they want post-pandemic? What should they do to preserve the overall interests of China-Europe relations?” asked the Ambassador. He then shared his views in four aspects for China and Europe to pull together.

First, respect each other and reject interference in other countries’ internal affairs. Mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit are the basic principles enshrined in the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations. “Experience of the past 45 years since China and the EU established diplomatic relations has told us that when these principles were upheld, China-Europe relationship would make progress; otherwise, this relationship would suffer setbacks or even retrogression,” Ambassador Liu said, adding that “China has never interfered in other countries’ internal affairs, and we strongly oppose interference in China’s internal affairs by other countries.”

The National Security Law for Hong Kong SAR plugs the legal loophole in terms of national security in Hong Kong. It targets a very few actions and activities that gravely jeopardize national security. It will neither affect the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong nor change Hong Kong’s independent judicial power, including the power of final adjudication. It will provide better safeguards for the rights and freedoms of the Hong Kong residents and ensure better protection of the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors in the city. Ambassador Liu emphasized that Hong Kong is part of China, and Hong Kong affairs are China’s internal affairs and brook no external interference. “It is my hope that the EU side will view the National Security Law for Hong Kong SAR from an objective, reasonable and fair perspective, take concrete steps to observe international law and basic norms governing international relations, and stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs, which are internal affairs of China,” he added.

Second, China and Europe should see each other as partners and abandon the “Cold War” mentality. China will always pursue peaceful development. It has always seen Europe as an equal partner rather than a rival. Between China and Europe, there is no geopolitical discord or conflict in fundamental interests; there is more cooperation than rivalry, more consensus than differences. “China and Europe should deepen mutual trust through equal-footed dialogue, achieve win-win results through cooperation, and deal with differences appropriately through constructive communication,” said the Ambassador.

Third, China and Europe should seize the opportunities of each other’s development and reject zero-sum game. China’s development creates opportunities rather than challenges, still less threats, to Europe. As China deepens reform and opens its market wider to the world, China-Europe cooperation will face more promising prospects. “I am confident that the mutually-beneficial cooperation between China and Europe will not only deliver more benefits to the peoples of the two sides but also provide greater stability and predictability for a world that is full of uncertainty,” Ambassador Liu said.

Fourth, China and Europe should learn from each other and promote the progress of different civilizations side-by-side. “The Chinese people believe that there is harmony without uniformity. We also believe that you should not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you. China does not copy the development model of other countries. And China does not export its model to other countries.” said the Ambassador. The EU regards “united in diversity” as its motto as well. It values equality, inclusiveness and diversity. It is important that China and Europe respect, appreciate, learn from and support each other. China and Europe should work together to enable different flowers of diverse human civilizations to come into full blossoms.

In closing, Ambassador Liu said, “History tells us that openness brings progress; inclusiveness leads to integration, and cooperation delivers win-win outcomes. I hope we could join hands to contribute more positive energy to China-Europe cooperation so that after the pandemic, the relationship between China and Europe will make further progress at a higher level and embrace a better, brighter and more promising future.”

After his speech, Ambassador Liu took questions from the audience on China-UK relationship, China-US relationship, UK’s decision on Huawei, China’s foreign policy, China-Europe economic and trade cooperation, global cooperation against COVID-19, multilateralism, climate change, WTO reform, debt relief for Africa, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South China Sea and internationalization of the Renminbi.

Participants appreciated the comprehensive and clear picture of China’s stance and views towards Europe from the speech by Ambassador Liu. They agreed that China and Europe are key partners, and that the two sides should enhance cooperation in economic and trade investment, multilateralism and climate change, strengthen communication, exchanges and understanding between the peoples of the two sides, encourage people to play an active role in promoting China-UK relationship and China-Europe relationship.

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Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, a renowned economic and financial organization, was founded in 2010, aiming to provide policy consultation service to central banking, foreign exchange administration, and sovereign wealth fund. Centre for European Reform, an independent think-tank founded in 1996, focuses its key research on issues related to European society, politics and economy and provides consultation service to European governments, EU organizations and business community.