Reeling from Trump rebukes, Europe weighs deeper ties with China

BARCELONA, Spain — Jilted, betrayed, dumped, or defiant. It’s hard to describe the European Union after relentless attacks from its once-dependable ally, the United States. The threat from Donald Trump’s second administration against Greenland, its sweeping tariff plans and courtship of Moscow have firmed up some European leaders’ vows to reduce their reliance on America.

That has not gone unnoticed in another global power. China hopes for a Europe detached from the U.S. and is sensing an opportunity now to divide the West. For the past several years, the EU moved in lockstep with Washington to levy tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and sanction Chinese officials accused of rights violations.

Now, locked in a trade war with Washington that may be prolonged, Beijing sees the 27-nation bloc as a desirable partner in blunting the impact from Trump’s tariffs and to maintain its strong global position.

But for EU leaders, meeting Thursday in Brussels to discuss China among a host of regional and global issues, managing ties with Beijing is no easy matter.

An upcoming summit in China in July to mark 50 years of ties might offer the first hint of new consensus between these two global behemoths.

The EU-China economic ties are hefty: bilateral trade is estimated at 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) per day.

China is the EU’s second largest trading partner in goods, after the United States. Both China and the EU believe it is in their interest to keep their trade ties stable for the sake of the global economy, and they share certain climate goals.

Like the U.S., Europe runs a massive trade deficit with China: around 300 billion euros last year. It relies heavily on China for critical minerals, which are also used to make magnets used in cars and appliances. As European companies are seeing declining profitability in China, Brussels is hoping Beijing will follow through on recent pledges, like one announced Thursday by the Ministry of Commerce, to ease restrictions on foreign business ventures.

“While other opened their market, China focused undercutting intellectual property protections, massive subsidies with the aim to dominate global manufacturing and supply chains,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the G7 meeting in Canada. “This is not market competition – it is distortion with intent.”

Now, Europe, already fretting over the trade deficit, worries that Trump’s tariffs could divert even more Chinese goods to Europe,…