Brussels and Beijing are heading toward a trade confrontation in the coming months, but the concessions Europe can actually extract from China will depend on several factors – chief among them how much economic pain the EU is willing to endure.
The EU-China trade deficit has grown exponentially in recent years, reaching a record €1 billion a day in 2025, prompting European leaders to demand a rebalancing of what they call "unsustainable" economic relations with Beijing.
