In recent times, there has been a noticeable and quite expected intensification of contacts at various levels between China and Europe. Europe is engaging both as a supranational structure and through its individual member states.

Preliminary Observations

First, it is worth emphasizing that in recent years China and the EU have become some of each other’s principal trading partners. In 2023, their bilateral trade in goods reached 739 billion USD, but for the EU, this resulted in a deficit of 292 billion USD. This second point, a serious concern for Europeans, is one of the key issues in their relationship with China. A similar problem exists in US-China relations and served as one of the central motivations for Donald Trump’s initiation of the “tariff war.”

But this is not the only challenge in EU-China relations. For roughly a decade, Brussels has pushed back against what is often referred to as “Chinese shopping sprees,” during which major European companies — especially those specializing in high-tech — face the threat of being acquired by Chinese investors. In the last year or two, an additional concern has emerged: the risk that the European market could be saturated with relatively inexpensive Chinese products in advanced sectors such as electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, and more.

Thus, it is not simply (or even primarily) Europe’s alignment with Washington that leads Brussels to erect barriers to deeper trade and economic ties with Beijing. The EU’s own strategic concerns play a major role. These same concerns also limit the extent to which Europe can pursue an overtly anti-American course by stepping up its engagement with China. For now, such gestures seem more symbolic than substantive, lacking firm policy........

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