{"id":672967,"date":"2026-01-04T09:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T09:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/672967\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T09:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T09:01:18","slug":"taoiseach-talks-with-xi-in-beijing-expected-to-focus-on-eu-china-relationship-and-trade-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/672967\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach talks with Xi in Beijing expected to focus on EU-China relationship and trade \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> arrives in Beijing on Sunday for an official visit to China<\/a> that will also take him to Shanghai and include meetings with the top three figures in the Communist Party leadership.<\/p>\n

In Beijing on Monday and Tuesday, Mr Martin will meet president Xi Jinping<\/a>, premier Li Qiang and National People\u2019s Congress (NPC) chairman Zhao Leji. <\/p>\n

The meetings are expected to focus on the relationship between the European Union<\/a> and China and on global issues as well as the bilateral political and economic relationship between Dublin and Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to engaging with President Xi, Premier Li and Chairman Zhao of the National People\u2019s Congress,\u201d the Taoiseach said ahead of the visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to discussing the broad relationship between Ireland and China, we will exchange views on pressing global challenges including peace and security and the trading environment. I will stress the importance of a strong EU-China relationship, as well as robust and effective multilateral institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

China\u2019s foreign ministry said it hoped the Taoiseach\u2019s visit would promote the \u201csound and steady\u201d advancement of China-EU relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent years, the China-Ireland strategic partnership for mutually beneficial co-operation has enjoyed robust development,\u201d the ministry said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur two sides have always treated each other with mutual respect and equality … Through the upcoming visit, China stands ready to work with Ireland to enhance political mutual trust, expand mutually beneficial co-operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChineseChinese president Xi Jinping seen here delivering his New Year\u2019s Eve address. Photograph: Yan Yan\/Xinhua via AP <\/p>\n

The Taoiseach is the first of a number of European leaders who are expected to visit Beijing in the first weeks of 2026. It comes amid tensions between Beijing and Brussels over China\u2019s enormous trade surplus with the EU.<\/p>\n

The EU has also criticised China\u2019s diplomatic and economic support for Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost four years ago. And visiting European leaders routinely raise concerns about human rights, particularly in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin to visit China as Beijing shores up EU tiesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In Shanghai, the Taoiseach will meet the city\u2019s mayor Gong Zheng and visit Irish and Chinese companies in the country\u2019s commercial capital. He has planned meetings with representatives from the financial services, tourism and food and beverage sectors, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Beijing, there will be a particular focus on further and higher education \u2013 an important area with a lot of potential for both partners, and where co-operation will yield longer-term dividends in terms of research and innovation, and people-to-people links,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach will meet representatives from 12 Irish third-level colleges that offer full-time degree and diploma courses with Chinese higher education partners. Typically, these offer qualifications that are recognised in both Ireland and China, with courses based on those in Irish colleges.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Sunday Times Ireland edition reported that the Irish Military Intelligence Service was concerned about security risks associated with academic links to China. But the Taoiseach later suggested that a more sophisticated approach to China\u2019s strategic ambitions was required.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do accept the intelligence that\u2019s across Europe and UK recently but on the other hand, China has never initiated, in modern times, a war. I had a very interesting, pretty careful discussion with the Singaporean Prime Minister on that. We should do more to understand the Chinese psyche and approach, and the more longer term sort of scenario, strategic thinking,\u201d he told The Journal. <\/p>\n

Mr Martin last visited China in November 2023 when he was t\u00e1naiste and minister for foreign affairs and he first visited the country as minister for enterprise, trade and employment in 2005. This week\u2019s visit will be the first by a sitting Taoiseach since Enda Kenny\u2019s in 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin arrives in Beijing on Sunday for an official visit to China that will also take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[3801,1395,2000,299,5187,681,1773],"class_list":{"0":"post-672967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-beijing","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-micheal-martin","14":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115836019297369659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}