China’s ambassador to the EU has said Greece might default despite EU and IMF efforts, but indicated that Beijing will continue to support the single currency.

“Despite the recent payment of €12 billion by the EU and IMF, some of the fundamental problems in Greece have not yet been resolved … People are still discussing if there will be a restructuring [of Greek debt] or a default, obviously a restructuring would have much smaller negative consequences,” ambassador Song Zhe told press at an event in Brussels on Friday (8 July).

Reacting to analysts who say Beijing is buying risky bonds in Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain in order to gain political influence in the EU, Song said the purchases have no “suspicious” motive.

With EU-China trade growing to €480 billion in 2010, the ambassador noted: “We can build stronger trade ties only by investing in a sound EU economy. We hope in this way to bring back the stability of the euro so that in the future we can move ahead [on trade issues] more smoothly.”

Song predicted the European Union as such will emerge from the crisis.

But when asked if he thinks China will get its money back from Athens, he answered: “Risk goes along with any kind of investment.”

The Chinese diplomat also advised the major eurozone economies to dig deeper into their pockets: “We hope that on the face of the difficulties the euro is facing, the core [euro-using] countries can unite to avoid this crisis.”