{"id":1121824,"date":"2026-07-31T09:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1121824\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T09:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:15:19","slug":"eu-china-trade-war-beijing-turns-the-screws-as-brussels-tests-limits-of-restraint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1121824\/","title":{"rendered":"EU-China trade war: Beijing turns the screws as Brussels tests limits of restraint"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Thursday, the European Union<\/a> added 14 Chinese companies to its latest round of sanctions, accusing them of providing support for Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine<\/a> \u2013 but few of the names were recognisable to anyone outside narrow trading and compliance circles.Officials were taken aback less than 24 hours later, when Beijing \u2013 which had been notified of the ragtag group of traders and freight forwarders to be listed by the EU as far back as June \u2013 fired back ferociously<\/a>. Unlike the long notice afforded to their own diplomats, China gave Brussels just a one-hour warning, according to people familiar with the exchange.<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s own listings had been carefully calibrated, intentionally omitting major Chinese actors to ensure its own member states would support the package amid fears of retaliation. Beijing, on the other hand, went for the jugular.<\/p>\n

Added to a list that effectively bars them from buying certain goods from China were 14 EU defence organisations, including the continent\u2019s biggest defence company, Rheinmetall, and a prominent Polish university<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The firms named are also effectively cut off from receiving those same Chinese-origin materials via overseas suppliers, an extraterritorial reach that does not exist in the EU\u2019s own measures, and which could send a chilling effect through their supply chains, Brussels officials fear.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe EU last week added 14 Chinese firms to its latest round of sanctions, accusing them of providing support for Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have threatened for years but until now they barked a lot and didn\u2019t bite. This time they didn\u2019t bark much, but they bit,\u201d one senior official said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Thursday, the European Union added 14 Chinese companies to its latest round of sanctions, accusing them of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1121825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[3801,11330,1395,16536,2000,299,5187,2557,1699,57487,1216,17460,332,21058,657,978],"class_list":["post-1121824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-beijing","tag-brussels","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-commission","tag-european-union","tag-institut-montaigne","tag-maros-sefcovic","tag-rheinmetall","tag-russia","tag-scmp","tag-ukraine","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117013836440100501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121824","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=1121824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1121825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1121824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1121824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1121824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}