EU calls China an "existential challenge"

Brussels reiterated de-risking strategy while warning that current trade and investment ties with China are unsustainable

Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly China brief.

In an interview with Le Monde this week, executive vice-president of the European Commission for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, referred to China as an “existential challenge.”

In spite of all the challenges that China poses to the EU, the group has remained divided on how to respond, unable to agree on a coherent long-term strategy that protects its collective interests, as individual member states fear retaliation from and negotiate directly with Beijing.

The list of grievances is long: China’s industrial overcapacity and state subsidies, lack of reciprocal market access, discrimination against foreign firms and unequal competitive conditions, the EU’s excessive dependence on key products such as rare earths, critical minerals, batteries, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, technology transfer pressures and lack of intellectual property protections, China’s use of trade and economic coercion, …