{"id":1139793,"date":"2026-08-09T14:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T14:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1139793\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T14:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T14:21:16","slug":"can-europe-stay-united-in-china-trade-battle-ceuta-migrant-crisis-offers-a-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1139793\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Europe stay united in China trade battle? Ceuta migrant crisis offers a warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Union\u2019s traditional August break was supposed to provide officials with some respite ahead of a potentially bruising autumn<\/a> when it will try to set its fiery trade relationship with China on a new course.Instead, a border crisis on its southern flank<\/a> has created turmoil and division among its 27 members, raising questions over how prepared the bloc is for a dust-up with one of the world\u2019s economic superpowers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a real-time test of what happens when one member state was under coercion,\u201d said Alberto Rizzi, a Rome-based policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, specialising in geoeconomics. \u201cEverybody was very quick to jump on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crisis was sparked on July 30, when an estimated 72,000 mainly Moroccan migrants surged into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, after Moroccan border controls appeared to collapse. At least 75 people died, mostly at sea, with the Spanish authorities estimating more than 100 died.<\/p>\n

The surge raised suspicions that the Moroccan authorities had weaponised migrant flows in response to Spanish efforts to improve ties with its neighbour and rival Algeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union\u2019s traditional August break was supposed to provide officials with some respite ahead of a potentially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1139794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2741,71115,143021,1395,32,2000,299,5187,2557,1699,200093,769,36,1824,2440,6657,5338],"class_list":["post-1139793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-algeria","tag-andrej-babis","tag-ceuta","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-commission","tag-european-union","tag-ev-subsidies","tag-finland","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-migration","tag-pedro-sanchez"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117065999147768691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139793","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=1139793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1139794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}