High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell was scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, pictured on May 23, 2023 in Beijing, China. (Photo: Thomas Peter-Pool/Getty Images)
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On Tuesday, China canceled a planned visit by the European Union’s foreign minister for next week without giving a selected reason.
High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell was initially scheduled to visit Beijing in April for the annual EU-China Strategic Dialogue with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, but this was delayed after Borrell tested positive for Covid-19.
On Wednesday, the EU foreign affairs spokesman confirmed to CNBC that Borrell’s team had been told by their Chinese counterparts that the brand new July 10-11 dates were now not possible and another would have to be found. The topics of the talks were to be human rights and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin declined to give a reason for the cancellation during Wednesday’s briefing, but added: “We welcome Borrell’s high-level official to visit China on the earliest mutually convenient time.” according to a Reuters report.
CNBC contacted China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
The cancellation or possible postponement comes ahead of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s scheduled visit to Beijing on Thursday.
China on Monday announced recent export restrictions on two metals, germanium and gallium, that are key in semiconductor and electronics production and apply from military equipment to mobile phones.
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According to Reuters, the news boosted metal prices while pushing firms to fight to replenish supplies.
In recent times, the US has increasingly used export restrictions and trade blacklists against China in an effort to limit the rise of its technological power.
Wei Jianguo, former Chinese vice minister of commerce, said Chinese every day newspaper Monday’s latest measures are “just the start” and that “if China’s high-tech restrictions turn out to be stricter in the longer term, Chinese countermeasures can even escalate.”
“It’s arming this supply chain of rare-earth metals and important minerals,” Rebecca Harding, a research specialist at CNBC, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Wednesday.
“[There] it is a component of mutually assured destruction because you possibly can’t make chips for those who do not have supply chains. But these export controls can be quite limited,” she said.
She added that these measures could possibly be seen as retaliation for actions not only by the US but in addition by the Netherlands, a key center for semiconductor machinery, which last week announced recent export restrictions on advanced semiconductor equipment. It’s unlikely “a return to rowing is imminent,” Harding added.