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Wen poses with Barroso (right) and Rompuy (center) during the EU-China Summit in Brussels/AFP

Focus on China

China strikes sour note at summit with EU

“We have reached a level of mutual understanding and respect … (which) allows us to progress … to address our differences,” Van Rompuy said.

The 27-state EU bloc is China’s single largest export market while China is the EU’s second largest trading partner after the United States, with total trade worth nearly 430 billion euros ($560 billion) in 2011.

With a new leadership to be named in Beijing within months, recession and mounting protectionist trade disputes form the backdrop to the summit, alongside diplomatic differences over Syria.

There is also fresh EU concern over tensions in the South China Sea and between Japan and China over disputed islands.

“Both sides recognise that continuing to strengthen the EU-China strategic partnership is essential to get through these difficult times,” an EU statement said.

Beijing has repeatedly expressed concern about the EU slowdown, offering its help in resolving the eurozone debt crisis even as it takes costly stimulus steps of its own to sustain domestic growth.

EU sources said earlier that the summit would aim to consolidate ties ahead of the leadership handover in Beijing, but “it is not a summit for big decisions”, one added.

In office since 2003, Wen is to step down within months as the Chinese Communist Party and government passes the baton to a new generation of leaders.

Disputes – including the biggest yet of its kind, an EU anti-dumping probe into the multi-billion-euro market for solar panels dominated by Chinese exporters – should be kept in proportion, EU sources said.

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Other contentious issues will likely include human rights in China, and Syria, where Beijing has opposed Western policies.

“We do have some differences … but the two sides take care … to act with mutual respect,” Wen said.

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