EU’s Kallas Expected to Visit Beijing This Autumn

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is expected to travel to Beijing this autumn for her first face-to-face meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi since a tense strategic dialogue in Brussels last year, according to multiple people familiar with the planning, as SCMP reported. The visit, with a date yet to be confirmed, would revolve around the bilateral strategic dialogue and comes as EU-China relations face their deepest strains in years.

Kallas’s office said plans were “not set yet,” though both sides were in touch regarding schedules. It would also mark Kallas’s first solo visit to China since she took up her post in 2024.

Context: A Relationship Under Pressure

The expected trip follows the 13th EU-China Strategic Dialogue in Brussels on 2 July 2025, co-chaired by Kallas and Wang. That meeting helped set the stage for a leaders’ summit marking 50 years of diplomatic relations, but it also exposed deep frictions. According to the EEAS, Kallas pressed China to end its restrictions on rare earths exports, called for concrete solutions to rebalance the economic relationship, and raised concerns about Chinese companies’ support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Insiders told SCMP the encounter was tense from the outset, and Wang reportedly warned that Beijing did not want Russia to lose the war because the United States would then turn its full attention to Asia.

Since then, the relationship has deteriorated sharply. The European Commission has set an October deadline for progress in rebalancing trade ties, after which it has pledged a more forceful policy toward Beijing. In July 2026, EU foreign ministers adopted a position paper, drafted by the European External Action Service, accusing China — along with Russia — of trying to “reshape the global order in line with their interests” and “fostering a return to a sphere-of-influence logic.” The paper, which calls China a “key enabler” and “crucial enabler” of Russia’s war, has been described as some of the bloc’s strongest-ever official criticism of Beijing. China denied taking Russia’s side and responded with a diplomatic demarche.

Key Developments: Trade Clashes and Sharpened Language

Wang and Kallas have spoken twice since the Brussels meeting — a brief exchange on the margins of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in July 2025, and a more substantive call on 2 April 2026 focused on the Middle East. According to the official Xinhua readout of the call, Wang told Kallas that “China’s development is Europe’s opportunity” and that “decoupling from China is decoupling from opportunity,” while Kallas said the EU regarded China as an important partner and did not seek decoupling.

SCMP sources, however, reported that the two clashed over trade, with Wang warning that Beijing would retaliate fiercely and that Europe would end up hurt more than China.

Tensions escalated again in June 2026, when Kallas said the EU had verified reports that the Chinese military was training Russian military personnel to fight in Ukraine — charges Beijing denied. A month later came the EU position paper, published without announcement on 13 July and reported in full by the South China Morning Post via PressReader. The document casts Russia and China as the principal revisionist powers challenging European security and warns that China’s “asymmetric advantages” make it a “critical long-term strategic challenge.”

The planned Kallas visit follows a burst of parliamentary diplomacy. A delegation from the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, led by chair David McAllister, travelled to Beijing and Shanghai from 21 to 23 July, meeting Wang Yi and other senior officials. In its concluding statement, the delegation urged China to press Russia for a ceasefire in Ukraine and stressed that stable, balanced EU-China relations serve both sides — even as it described the EU’s record trade deficit with China as “unsustainable.”

Analysis: Dialogue Amid Confrontation

The expected visit captures a defining tension in EU-China relations: Brussels is hardening its language toward Beijing while continuing to prize open channels of communication. Mikko Huotari, executive director of the Mercator Institute for China Studies, told SCMP the position paper “crosses a major diplomatic threshold,” synchronising EU language with NATO’s harder-edged stance and moving Beijing out of the category of a “passive diplomatic bystander.” Sense Hofstede of the Association for International Affairs said the sharper language reflects “growing frustration with Beijing’s unwillingness to listen” and “growing clarity about the extent of China’s actions.”

For Beijing, the autumn meeting would offer a platform to counter the “revisionist power” narrative and to argue, as Wang did in April, that China’s development is Europe’s opportunity. For Brussels, it is a chance to press China directly on Russia, trade and Taiwan — while testing whether a tougher line can coexist with strategic engagement.

What’s Next

Whether the visit actually takes place will depend on confirmation from both sides; Kallas’s office has said plans for autumn are “not set yet” but that both sides are in touch regarding schedules. The stakes are high. With the European Commission’s October deadline on trade looming and the EU’s first security strategy expected later this year, the Kallas-Wang meeting — if confirmed — could be one of the most consequential EU-China encounters in years.