The EU and China have decided to cancel their upcoming summit in Beijing because of the coronavirus epidemic, a spokeswoman for the bloc said on Wednesday.

The heads of the EU's main institutions along with the bloc's diplomatic chief had been due to travel to China -- where the pandemic began -- later this month to lay the groundwork for a second summit with all 27 European leaders in Germany in September.

But the Beijing meeting has been postponed as governments battle with the catastrophic fallout of COVID-19.

"The EU and China have decided jointly that the EU-China summit will not take place for the moment to allow both sides to concentrate on their response to the COVID-19 pandemic," EU spokeswoman Virginie Battu-Henriksson told AFP.

"The two sides will stay in contact in order to arrange another date once the situation begins to normalise, including an adequate preparatory process to allow us to achieve substantial results."

EU chiefs including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council head Charles Michel have another trip to Beijing planned in July with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country takes over the bloc's rotating presidency that month.

The coronavirus outbreak, which first emerged in China late last year, has travelled across the globe, infecting nearly 200,000 people and killing 7,900.

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US-China trade truce at risk as virus hits global economy
Beijing (AFP) March 15, 2020
A hard-won trade war truce between the US and China is at risk as the coronavirus pandemic rocks the global economy, making it tough for Beijing to fulfil its commitments. The United States also faces huge disruptions from the deadly virus while a diplomatic spat between Beijing and Washington threatens to derail the phase-one deal that came after more than a year of escalating tensions between the world's two biggest economies. In the pact signed in January, China agreed to buy $200 billion mor ... read more