The European peanut gallery probably won’t be able to scupper a deal like this, though it might be a good thing for China if it actually did.
The last time an opportunity like this came up, I gather it was Chinese business/capital sectional interests that compelled China’s trade negotiators to give nearly the whole farm away, so to speak in the CAI deal they were on the verge of signing back then, including asymmetrical market penetration in China for European capital. Then, EU atrocity propaganda sanctions stopped that deal in 2021 and the EU’s negotiating power then plummeted with the Ukraine war, the subsequent de-industrialization and then the economic fallout from the crises in West Asia. With all these cascading consequences, China’s negotiating position will likely continue to improve against the EU if the trade talks are continually postponed through attempts at sabotage like this.
The European peanut gallery probably won’t be able to scupper a deal like this, though it might be a good thing for China if it actually did.
The last time an opportunity like this came up, I gather it was Chinese business/capital sectional interests that compelled China’s trade negotiators to give nearly the whole farm away, so to speak in the CAI deal they were on the verge of signing back then, including asymmetrical market penetration in China for European capital. Then, EU atrocity propaganda sanctions stopped that deal in 2021 and the EU’s negotiating power then plummeted with the Ukraine war, the subsequent de-industrialization and then the economic fallout from the crises in West Asia. With all these cascading consequences, China’s negotiating position will likely continue to improve against the EU if the trade talks are continually postponed through attempts at sabotage like this.