EU Tariffs: How China Should Respond (Part 2)

"Although a trade war is not a fundamental way of resolving this issue, it would ... prompt the EU to be more cautious and reduce its willingness to provoke a potential larger-scale trade war."

Today's edition opens with an introduction by Abigaël Vasselier, Director for Policy and European Affairs and Head of China's Foreign Relations Programme at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS). Abigaël was previously the Deputy Head of Division for China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Mongolia at the European External Action Service (EEAS). She is also the co-author with François Godement of "China at the gates: A new power audit of EU-China relations". Thank you very much to her for contributing to this newsletter and to Jian Junbo (简军波) for reviewing today’s translation and allowing Sinification to reprint his article. — Thomas

This contribution from Jian Junbo in the Chinese debate on Europe illustrates the mismatch in the European and Chinese perceptions of economic competition and the transformation of China-Europe trade relations.

The author is clear-eyed about the European challenge to reconcile competitiveness with the green transition in an era of strategic competi…