Europe and China Weigh Closer Economic Ties

Washington Post: “Europe has long looked warily on China’s economic power, discouraged from engaging by the United States but also out of a homegrown sense of distrust. But as Trump levies crippling tariffs on Europe, China and the rest of the rest of the world, the E.U. is cautiously looking to Beijing as one way to achieve what it now calls a need to ‘diversify’ its economic partners in the face of U.S. aggression.”

“Led by Spain and Hungary, some countries in the 27-nation E.U. are actively pushing the bloc away from its stated policy of ‘de-risking’ — a view of China as a strategic competitor that presents as much peril as potential for profit. But in a possible thaw in long tense trade relations, the E.U. and China agreed this week to restart talks over one of the thorniest issues dividing them: European tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.”