China courts EU as hedge against Trump

China is looking to mend a strained trading relationship with the European Union, the last open major market for its products, to weather a trade war with the United States. But diplomats and analysts say breaking a prolonged stalemate won’t be easy.

- REUTERS

The EU and other major trad-ing partners argue that Chinese overinvestment in manufactur-ing is flooding the world with goods, while Beijing accuses the EU of being protectionist.

But since US President Don-ald Trump's return to the White House, a procession of Euro-pean officials and lawmakers have made their way to Beijing, capped off with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez meet-ing Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping Friday.

Xi, in his first public com-ments since Trump launched his tariff offensive, appealed directly to the EU by telling Sanchez that China and his bloc should join forces to de-fend globalisation and oppose “unilateral acts of bullying”.