Tomorrow Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will travel to Prague for a summit with his European Union counterparts that has perhaps the lowest expectations of any on record. The summit should have taken place last December but was delayed after China withdrew in protest at French president Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to meet the Dalai Lama. No matter who you talk to in Europe or in China, the best anyone can say about the reinstated summit is that it will happen – hopefully.
But who does such an empty diplomatic process serve? It is Europe that traditionally wants such summits and dialogues and often has to beg China to get them, expending what little leverage it has on the process rather than on substance. China knows a rite when it sees one and has become adept at exploiting the EU's passion for summitry, agreeing to discussions but turning them into pointless talking shops.
The same is about to happen again but with more at stake for Europe this time around. The diplomatic contempt China showed Europe in cancelling the December summit did not prevent Mr Sarkozy from meeting the Dalai Lama. But it did provide China with the opportunity to turn what would otherwise have been a difficult meeting in advance of the London summit of the Group of 20 leading nations into an opportunity to make the EU grateful simply that China is willing to turn up.