Germany maps China’s weaknesses in preparation for a trade war

The challenge is that while any response to Chinese economic coercion would likely be coordinated at the European level, Chinese retaliation would probably be asymmetric and disproportionately affect individual EU member states. That makes a European compensation mechanism necessary to preserve solidarity, according to Sander Tordoir, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.

“The objective is not to cut China off from technology forever,” Tordoir said in an interview. “The objective is to show that Germany has teeth, to remind Beijing that China also has critical dependencies on Europe.”