Despite stating otherwise, the European Union has increasingly turned towards restricting trade relations with China. This is not due simply to China’s support for Russia in the ongoing US- and NATO-backed military conflict in Ukraine but the pressure Washington has been putting on the EU to ‘regulate’ its trade ties with China in order to restrict Beijing’s rise to global economic supremacy and protect Washington’s interests.
At the heart of these restrictions is also the increasing inability of Western neoliberalism to compete, successfully or even meaningfully, with the Chinese economic model, which works on the basis of a strong role of the state. Still, the EU’s trade war is likely to intensify due to the recent victories of far-right parties in Europe. If Donald Trump wins the next elections, the European far-right and the American far-right could merge to build an anti-China trade block. Harris’ victory, however, may not ensure a common stance.
The EU’s Trade War on China
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is particularly known for her anti-China position. She was recently re-elected to lead the EU as its president until 2029. During her previous tenure, the EU saw many legal instruments developed to ‘oversee’ and ‘regulate’ trade ties with China, mostly on the same lines as in the US. One of these, for instance, is the ‘Foreign Subsidies Regulation’,........