Michel’s recorded message was to be one of several from world leaders and heads of international organizations played at the opening Friday last week of China’s International Import Expo in Shanghai. Three European diplomats said Michel’s speech, which was intended to be strongly critical of Russia’s “illegal” war in Ukraine, had been removed, according to Reuters, which first reported the incident. “President Michel was invited to speak [the] Fifth Hongqiao/CIIE Forum in Shanghai,” Michel spokesman Barend Leyts said. “As requested by the Chinese authorities, we did provide a pre-recorded message, which ultimately did not appear.” Leitch told the Guardian that the European Council had received no further comments from the Chinese authorities. “We leave it to them to explain what happened,” he said. No one from China’s foreign ministry or the exhibition’s co-organizers, China’s Ministry of Commerce and the Shanghai city government, responded to Reuters requests for comment. According to the event’s website, attendees at the fair heard from China’s president, Xi Jinping. the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva; and the head of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Belarus’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also offered a video message. Lukashenko spoke of “an urgent need for effective international coordination and equal and respectful partnership,” according to the conference’s website. Michel’s speech urged China’s leaders to use their influence to stop Russia’s “brutal” war in Ukraine. Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered a similar message to Chinese leaders at an EU-China summit in April, which appears to have had little impact on Beijing’s actions. The EU’s relationship with one of its biggest trading partners is becoming increasingly strained amid growing concern over human rights in China and Beijing’s role in the world. In March 2019, the EU labeled China a “systemic adversary” as well as an economic competitor and negotiating partner.
