From our correspondent in Beijing
Ursula von der Leyen is not about to admire the Forbidden City. The new president of the European Commission was to make her first official visit to China on March 30, but the coronavirus is mismanaging the revival of Sino-European relations, complicating the diplomatic agenda of the second world power, entangled in a health crisis at the uncertain duration. The European executive has decided to postpone the holding of this annual China-EU summit because of the scale of the epidemic, whose toll has exceeded 2400 victims in China. The meeting was important, aimed at speeding up negotiations for an ambitious bilateral investment treaty at a time when Beijing is trying to get closer to its first economic partner, to counter America's tariff assaults from Donald Trump. But the spread of the mysterious Covid-19 virus has convinced the new European team to postpone this first trip to China, until further notice, blocking
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