Chinese ambassador Zhang Ming | Chinese Mission to the EU China’s EU envoy to Europe: Plot your own path, not Washington’s Zhang Ming urges the EU to keep its markets open to Chinese companies ahead of a Beijing-EU summit on Tuesday.

Hey, Europe: Don't let Washington ruin our good thing.

That was the message from China's top representative to the European Union, who spoke to POLITICO in the run-up to a Beijing-EU summit Tuesday, taking place against a backdrop of growing tensions on trade and technology.

Amid last-minute preparations for the talks, which aim to salvage a bruised relationship between Brussels and Beijing, Zhang Ming urged the EU to maintain its spirit of economic openness and the level playing field for foreign companies to invest and grow inside the EU.

But he also lamented Europe's toughening stance toward Beijing, pushing back against the term "systemic rival" adopted by European countries to describe China, arguing that such polarizing language was not even used during the Cold War at a time of icy relations.

“I would disagree with that [term]," he said.

He added: “In Chinese culture, rivals are bound to seek superiority over the other side ... During the Cold War, there also existed differences between the sides, and even then the two sides didn’t describe each other as rivals.”

EU leaders in recent months have beefed up their rhetoric vis-à-vis China as Washington sent diplomats onto the Continent to persuade capitals, including Berlin, to toughen up restrictions on Chinese companies.

One result has been a strategic document released by the European Commission that targets matters including human rights, climate policy and investment relations, driving a wedge between the two sides.

Calling China-EU relations "mature," Zhang urged the European Union to trace its own path with Beijing and not follow in the footsteps of a third country, which was likely to be the United States.

The EU and China's regular dialogue is "different from the practice of a certain country in today's world, so it seems to be more valuable under the current global circumstances," he added.

At the heart of the new tensions is China's flagship telecom company Huawei, which has taken up a dominant position in Europe in the past 10 years.

In recent months, a U.S.-led push by Western intelligence services has sparked concerns and cast doubts over Huawei's levels of cybersecurity, and the strategic risk that comes with procuring Chinese equipment for 5G networks that would run much of the West's critical and commercial services in the decades to come. Huawei has repeatedly rejected such fears about its security.

Now, some critics suggest restrictions could extend to other powerful Chinese companies, like Tencent or Alibaba.

"Some are trying to exercise a presumption of guilt against Chinese enterprises, their technologies and products," Zhang said about the concerns surrounding Huawei.

"These companies do not fear competition, but they do not want to be schemed against," he said. "And they don't want to see any attempt to disrupt or even distort the normal business operations in the market otherwise that would be harmful to all."

He added: "It is important to keep to the principles of fairness, un-bias and non-discrimination instead of harming the legitimate interests of a certain enterprise and distorting market environments."

The EU is also designing an industrial policy aimed at countering China's aggressive expansion in areas like manufacturing and technology markets, and it is beefing up procurement rules to help European companies compete against Chinese rivals.

"I noticed the EU is saying they're trying to do its homework well in order to better protect its own interests," Zhang said. "China is a reliable, trustworthy and predictable partner of the EU — not something to be feared or guarded against."

He added: "We hope and trust that the EU will not ask China to open up its door while at the same time closing its door."

Against this backdrop, EU diplomats have questioned whether this year's annual summit can produce any progress at all between the two sides.

Zhang offered little hint of a breakthrough in the talks, which have failed to produce a joint statement in past years due to disagreements over geographical indications, or European rules governing how food should be labeled to prove its regional provenance, and World Trade Organization reform, among other stumbling blocks.

"Our teams are in preparation for the summit in the hope that we can have more deliverables," Zhang said. "Since last July, we have made good progress on many of these files. For the geographical indications agreement, China and the EU have both made very hard efforts and it's fair to say that between China and the EU, we are very close to the finishing line."

The Chinese ambassador said his government has prepared concessions including on Europe's market access in China, geographical indications and the reform agenda of the World Trade Organization.

"China-EU relations have been more mature and the sign of this increasing maturity is that we both commit to resorting to bilateral friendly consultation or multilateral [talks] when we encounter frictions and differences," Zhang said.