Looking at China's countermeasures against Europe and the United States in recent years, one thing can be seen, that is, today, China's trade import and export structure has really changed. Europe and the United States have become exporters of agricultural products, while China has become an exporter of high-end industrial products. No wonder Europe and the United States are in a hurry to jump wildly.
This matter has to start with China's recent countermeasures against the EU's brandy.
Since the end of last year, under the leadership of France, the European Union has followed the United States in launching a huge anti-dumping investigation against Chinese electric vehicle companies. Although there is no real evidence, the EU believes that "cheap" electric vehicles from China are dominating the European market and squeezing the share of European companies.
China has always been more tolerant of the EU. Because China's goal has always been to develop a multipolar world. And as the saying goes, distant and close attack. If the world really ushers in multipolarity, the European Union, which is geographically far away from China compared to Russia and the United States, and whose own capabilities and ambitions are not so strong compared with Russia and the United States, will undoubtedly be a very good partner to work with. Therefore, although China does not have a good face towards the United States, it has always been more respectful of European countries, and last year, it also invited Macron and Scholz to visit China.
But China's forbearance has not been exchanged for equal treatment by Europe, but has made some politicians feel that they can take advantage of China.
A group of politicians cultivated by the United States in the EU, such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is waiting to become NATO secretary general, and German Foreign Minister Baerbock, who started by playing with the "white left" issue, have been biting China from both economic and ideological angles with the support of the United States. China's response strategy is to leave this group of people behind and engage with the leaders of various European countries to maintain channels of communication.
Recently, what has really provoked China? That is, von der Leyen, a group of agents supported by the United States, has obviously been squeezed to the brink of losing power, but some European leaders who have dealt with China before, especially Macron, have not taken this opportunity to calibrate Europe's China policy, but want to play them as a card and exchange benefits with China.
This is pure whimsy. The turbulence in China-EU relations is entirely the result of unilateral provocation and pressure exerted by the EU. The anti-dumping investigation on electric vehicles was also provoked by von der Leyen. Now that the culprit von der Leyen has been transferred to the European prosecutor's office for corruption and interference with official business, these unwarranted investigations against Chinese companies should be stopped.
But the EU is not. In March this year, the European Union even began to register imported trams produced in China with customs, apparently in preparation for future tariffs.
Under such circumstances, China could no longer bear it, and directly decided to conduct an anti-dumping investigation on European brandy, so that the EU could taste the fruits of its own suffering.
China's hand is also quite steady and ruthless. More than 99% of the brandies China buys from the EU come from France, which is the European country that has taken the lead in launching this round of tram offensive against China. The total scale of brandy imported by China is about 10 billion yuan, which is enough to make France feel pain. What's more, this year, French brandy is facing overshipments and commodity squeezing. If China, the second largest market for brandy imports, closes its doors, then French farmers will definitely pull Macron out of the Elysee Palace to ask for an explanation.
This round of confrontation between China and Europe also reflects the current hollowing out of Europe and the United States, which is really too serious. In recent years, the United States and Europe have sanctioned China, sanctioning semiconductors and electric vehicles. And China's countermeasures are either to cancel orders for American barley, or to investigate French brandy, a water agricultural and sideline product. Gone are the days when Europe and the United States dumped industrial goods on China, and now the ecological niche in the global industrial chain is getting closer and closer to Brazil and Argentina. These countries have already straddled into this, and they still jump to fight with China from time to time, and they will definitely be unlucky in the end.