China debate reaches boiling point as EU weighs tougher stance

James Green, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said China’s export-led growth model had amplified Europe’s wider economic difficulties, including high energy costs and US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on EU exports to the US.

“If Chinese industry is a shark, then it is currently taking big bites out of European industry,” he said.

“China has a strategic interest in continuing this export-led model, in part, because it means that the EU, the US and third countries all over the world are reliant on its products, giving China leverage,” Green said.

Whether Europe’s tougher mood translates into policy, however, remains uncertain.

However, Green also said it remained unclear what the outcome of Thursday’s debate will be.

“I do think that we’re seeing a shift in mindset towards a tougher line against Beijing,” Green said. “But how that tougher line translates into actual action remains to be seen.”