{"id":1060728,"date":"2026-07-01T00:53:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1060728\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T00:53:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:53:26","slug":"china-says-it-is-not-the-root-cause-of-the-eus-troubles-following-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1060728\/","title":{"rendered":"China says it is not the ‘root cause’ of the EU’s troubles following talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the country is not the \u201croot cause\u201d of issues facing the European Union\u2019s economy, following talks in Brussels aimed at avoiding a damaging trade war.<\/p>\n

\"europeFile photo: Gov\u2019t EU.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s large \u2014 and growing \u2014 trade surplus with the 27-nation bloc has increasingly raised concerns across Europe, putting pressure on Brussels to protect local industries.<\/p>\n

After talks on Monday with visiting Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic issued a stark message that \u201cthe status quo is not an option\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about the discussions on Tuesday, a spokesman for Beijing\u2019s foreign ministry said that \u201cChina and the European Union are partners, not rivals\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe root causes of the issues facing the European Union do not lie with China,\u201d Guo Jiakun told a regular news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key to resolving economic and trade issues between the two sides lies in deepening cooperations and achieving common development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that China was ready to \u201cstrengthen communication and consultation with the EU side (and) properly handle trade differences in a constructive manner\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sefcovic and Wang plan to meet again in October in China.<\/p>\n

\"ChineseWang Wentao. File photo: China\u2019s State Council Information Office.<\/p>\n

Brussels fears it will lose certain industries entirely if it does not act against a glut of inexpensive goods made in China threatening manufacturers in Europe.<\/p>\n

Europe insists on the need for a level playing field, pointing out that Chinese firms have an unfair advantage because of massive state subsidies.<\/p>\n

Apart from the trade imbalance, other issues include Beijing\u2019s stringent export controls on rare earth elements essential to the modern economy, introduced last year.<\/p>\n

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Dateline:<\/p>\n

Beijing,\u00a0China<\/p>\n

Type of Story: News Service<\/p>\n

Produced externally by an organization we trust to adhere to high journalistic standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the country is not the \u201croot cause\u201d of issues facing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1060729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[34544,2000,299,5187,1699,71482],"class_list":["post-1060728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-afp","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-wang-wentao"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116841992433359629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1060728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1060729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1060728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1060728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1060728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}