The EU is also standing firm —for now— on Washington’s demands it abandon its efforts to regulate American tech behemoths operating in Europe. There are not, however, strong objections to the demands on China.
The EU was already heading down this path anyway with its recent “de-risking” campaign. In 2023, Italy abandoned its lackluster participation in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. Germany faces an internal battle over its China policy, but incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz is among those with a more hawkish tone. Still, it’s more likely that he and his coalition will continue the untenable balance of political hostility toward Beijing while maintaining the economic relationship. That arrangement favors some of Germany’s biggest companies, which continue to make significant amounts of money in China.
What is the EU importing from China? Gone are the days when it mostly consisted of textiles, shoes, and furniture. They are now pharmaceutical ingredients, chemicals, critical raw materials, and machinery.
Disrupting that trade would be another death blow to European industry.
if Washington hopes for its economic war to succeed, it needs —and is actively pursuing as the above-mentioned WSJ article shows— other countries to join it against Beijing.
