China is one of the European Union\u2019s major sources of frustration. Perhaps not the biggest; it is hard to rank them in these years marked by Russia\u2019s aggression against Ukraine; Israel\u2019s bombings and killings, including against anyone who might, perhaps, disagree, with its illegal settlers allowed to do the same; a US presidency that could hardly have been worse, for the US itself and for the rest of the world, also engaged in bombings seemingly aimed at supporting the defence industry and rewarding those closest to it; and wars it typically loses, as in Iran, only to later strike deals to rebuild what it had destroyed just a few years earlier.<\/p>\n
In any case, China is a huge problem because it is constantly growing (albeit at an ever-slower rate), exporting more and more, buying up companies, taking over commercial spaces, and has managed to run a trade surplus with every country in the EU. What\u2019s more, it exports whatever it wants, doesn\u2019t help us with components for building weapons (which, according to many, is perhaps just as well) and has a stranglehold on much of our industry, starting with the ailing car industry, which consciously committed industrial suicide a few years ago. <\/p>\n
The challenge now is to defend ourselves by clawing back some ground. Leaders have been discussing this for some time; they talked about it at the G7, and they will discuss it again at today\u2019s and tomorrow\u2019s European Council, under a generic and rather ridiculous agenda heading on global macroeconomic imbalances, so as not to offend Beijing, a great show of courage that hardly inspires confidence. Yet none of the debate will be reflected in the summit conclusions.<\/p>\n
The aim, as a senior EU diplomat explained today, is \u201cto strike a balance of interests with China.\u201d That is, of course, the spirit of any negotiation: to reach a compromise that ultimately satisfies everyone. But the tone is rising, after two years of measures and announcements that never took off and led nowhere: China \u201cis interested in this European market, particularly in the face of falling domestic demand.\u201d There you have it: the aim is to identify internal weaknesses to capitalise on in order to build a more balanced relationship, and then begin the tug\u2011of\u2011war. \u201cAll Member States have a trade imbalance with China,\u201d is the premise, which also expresses the hope that those who have already been burned by China, such as Germany, might this time show greater solidarity so that the 27 can act as one. \u201cWe have tools, but they are rarely used,\u201d the diplomat admits, explaining that internal measures are also under consideration. \u201c\u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d (Maro\u0161, the Trade Commissioner, ed.) is proposing a scheme to reward European companies that manage to use European components and raw materials.\u201d A stimulus based on self\u2011reliance, which could be useful.<\/p>\n