The European Commission’s biggest-ever delegation to China heads for Beijing this week, hoping to progress from words to action on China’s soaring greenhouse gas emissions and its tense trade ties with Europe.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will have to tread a careful line because he also intends to raise the handling of pro-independence unrest in Tibet and human rights in general in China in the meetings with the country’s leadership. “We want to get into more concrete action with China,” a European Union official said ahead of the April 24-25 visit by Barroso and nine commissioners which Brussels hopes will prove the start of a new, more fruitful phase in EU-China ties.
