BRUSSELS — The European Union’s industry chief Thierry Breton will visit China next month, an aide told POLITICO on Tuesday.
The trip will take Breton to Beijing from November 8 to 10, as well as Hong Kong on November 11, according to the aide.
The visit by Breton, the European commissioner for the internal market, follows a series of recent trips to China by senior eurocrats, including trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis, his digital colleague Věra Jourová and the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.
It comes amid heightened trade friction between the EU and China, most notably over a recent European Commission probe into state subsidies behind made-in-China electric vehicles.
Beijing has yet to confirm the timing of a planned EU-China Summit, even though the EU hasproposed a couple of dates in December, POLITICO has learned.
Breton will be the first top EU official to visit Hong Kong since pro-democracy protests there in 2019.
