Europe At A Crossroads With China Trade

2025-11-19 07:01:21

(MENAFN- Asia Times) In its current fight with China over trade issues, the European Union is finding that its own economic and political weaknesses put it in a disadvantage when dealing with Beijing's commercial and military juggernaut.

Formally, the EU speaks with a single voice on international commerce. In reality, each of its 27 sovereign states can make separate foreign trade deals. Regarding China, Hungary circumvents heavy protectionist tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles by inviting China to build an EV plant with its borders.

European politicians are also at odds with one another over whether to take a hard line on China.

EU shortcomings in defending itself have encouraged Beijing to view Europe as an alternative destination for exports that formerly would have gone to the United States, which is engaged in its own trade war with China launched by President Donald Trump.

Europe faces an array of pressures from Beijing to play the role of Beijing's New Best Friend. Some of the pressures are coercive. China is adept at fashioning retaliatory tariffs or other restrictions on European exports to discourage the EU from taking protectionist measures. European firms that wish to continue doing lucrative business with China oppose moves to engage in a US-style tit-for-tat tariff trade war.

China also employs covert means to sway European public opinion to challenge EU policies. It funds opposition politicians on the sly, publicly sanctions political voices that express wary of China's mercantile policies, organizing spy rings to gather information on EU plans and flexing destructive muscle through covert sabotage of European economic infrastructure.

Continental academic researchers say Beijing's actions are designed to wear down or warn off the EU from policies meant to redress trade imbalances favorable to China. The EU countries ran a €305 billion trade deficit with China last year.

Ivana Karaskova, who heads the China Observers in Central and Eastern, a research group based in the Czech Republic, during a recent parliamentary hearing advised the EU to“acknowledge China as an actor with an influencing agenda targeting European society and democratic processes.”

Karaskova argued that“China has a clear plan for Europe. It sees Europe as able to be influenced and tailors its influence accordingly.”

She said Chinese leader Xi Jinping has three economic and political goals vis a vis Europe:

Keep open trade with the continent.
Maintain access for China of advanced technologies available for sale.
Discourage Europe from aligning itself with the United States in its ongoing trade war with Beijing.

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