BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - China is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against President Donald Trump’s trade policies at a summit later this month but is facing resistance, European officials said.
In meetings in Brussels, Berlin and Beijing, senior Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Liu He and the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, have proposed an alliance between the two economic powers and offered to open more of the Chinese market in a gesture of goodwill.
One proposal has been for China and the European Union to launch joint action against the United States at the World Trade Organisation.
But the European Union, the world’s largest trading bloc, has rejected the idea of allying with Beijing against Washington, five EU officials and diplomats told Reuters, ahead of a Sino-European summit in Beijing on July 16-17.
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WNU Editor: China enjoys a $400 billion dollar trade surplus with the U.S., and the EU about $100 billion (give or take). In short .... a half a trillion dollar trade surplus with the U.S.. In my book this is not sustainable in the long run .... but for the Chinese they believe that it is, and I am sure the Europeans are going to be receptive to this Chinese offer. The punchline is that EU - Chinese trade is incredibly restrictive, and their tariffs and trade restrictions are tame in comparison to what President Trump wants. But even with these restrictions .... and talk about having big kahunas in hoping that the EU will sign onto this proposal .... China is currently enjoying a $175 billion dollar trade surplus with the EU!!!!
If the EU goes for working with China I no longer can recognise myself as being a EU citizen. This is one step too far for me
ReplyDeleteTo all citizens and leaders of the EU... Do not support this. .this is insane. We share so much with the US and so little with China.. china is an authoritarian state rising to be totalitarian. And this is not a polemic exaggeration. Just look at their human rights track record to this date. Abductions. Resettlement. Sterilisation. Bullying and beating up of fishermen in disputed waters. And if you don't care about that, think about how close they bring us all to war with north Korea by constantly meddling, and on top breaking sanctions. And on top of that selling even mobile missile launchers and even the rocket fuel they'd use to target us. .they do all of this. On top threaten countries like Vietnam and India with war.
It'd be insane to do this. Even for a trillion cash it would not be worth it. Not even 10 trillion. Not even 100 trillion. Don't be short sighted, we cannot tip the scale towards authoritarian systems. Just think of what they do with their social scoring systems.
God.
Oh and yeah, organised religion nearly outlawed in China. Nothing comes before the party. If you organise you'll be observed and watched (and sometimes imprisoned, but who keeps count).
Resist this!
Xi has made China a honorable member of the Globalism movement spearheaded by leading NGO's, Merkel, Macron, Obama and many others in the world. Xi's move is a natural opening to fracture the Atlantic alliance and co-opt Europe in the the Belt and Road movement. Helping Xi is the natural antipathy in the Liberal Western Europe to Trump and Americans in general. Europe is defeatist enough in my view to be won over with the right blandishments. More trade, help from China to stem the flow of refugees from the Islamic world, investment growth and partnership in high technology all could be offered to the EU in exchange for the Atlantic Alliance.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea which way it goes.
Leaked documents show China's game plan to drive a wedge into Trump's base using targeted tariffs
ReplyDeleteFred, the EU + Canada has the same game plan. While the EU may not officially side with China in public, in private they will be doing much the same thing against the US.
ReplyDeleteWe start mass trading with China including petroleum products..... guess who’s ports get bombed or annexed first when, not if but when the us goes to war with China. Go tredope!
ReplyDeleteI think visceral Euro hatred for Trump and to a lesser extent America in general may Trump all things. No pun intended. Hatred tends to short circuit logical thinking and may just be enough to cause them to go with China over America against their own interests.
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