Chinese President Xi Jinping has just reached out to Antonio Costa, the President of the European Union, to work out a relationship between the two parties.

This phone call comes just days before the swearing in of Donald Trump's as the 47th President of the United States.

On the phone call, Xi discussed the possibility of a never before, EU-China summit to celebrate the 50th year of partnership between The European Union and China.

While the exact date of the event has yet to be confirmed, but some have speculated that the meeting might be hosted on the exact date that both parties has established their diplomatic relationship, which was on the May 6, 1975.

The Chinese president also discussed ways of expanding mutual openness, consolidating existing cooperation mechanisms to create a robust "symbiotic" economic relationship with the EU.

Costa also told Xi that the EU was "willing to work with China to open up a brighter future of Eu-China relations."

What is China concerned about?

This phone call and even potential partnership between the two parties comes a bit as a shock for the world, given how the two parties have always had a very rocky relationship.

But what exactly is triggering Xi Jinping to take such a drastic measure? Many are speculating that this decision by Xi could somewhat be triggered by the 60% tariff on all Chinese goods that Donald Trump would impose when he returns back to the White House later this month.

While Trump's decision to impose a tariff on China was initially aimed at putting pressure on China's economy, but little did he know that because of the interdependence of EU and China's economy, the tariff would also push the EU to decouple its supply chains from China.

During the call, both parties also stressed the need to ensure a level playing field and to rebalance the existing trade and economic imbalances.

Years of animosity

But the trade relationship between Brussels and Beijing remains tense. Through 2024, the relationship between the two deteriorated after a series of trade disputes and serious geopolitical differences, the most significant of which is China's close relationship with Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in Febrary 2022.

The EU's investigation into China's subsidies in its electric vehicle sector and the subsequent anti-subsidy duties slapped on the import of Chinese EVs was another major event that caused a dent in the relationship

Given the rocky history between China and the EU, Trump would have guessed that EU would never ever consider a working relationship with China. But the EU is proving Trump wrong by putting out the statement to Washington that the bloc is willing to keep its options open towards Beijing.

I guess both China and the EU also hold a crucial role in maintaining the balance in the mutually complementary and beneficial relationship between the two sides.