New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) While Beijing’s relations with the European Union (EU) remain strained due to China’s growing trade surplus, the Communist country has been cleverly cultivating several individual members of the EU bloc to step up its exports, according to an article in Financial Times.

In the first half of this year, China’s trade surplus with the EU, which hit 360 billion euros in 2025, rose another 24 per cent year-on-year. Beijing is also quietly leveraging relations with countries adjacent to the bloc, such as the UK and Morocco, to gain access to the EU single market, and is seeking to influence European companies with large operations in China, the article states.

However, the article points out that growing Chinese surpluses might finally force Europe to call time on this tactic or risk full de-industrialisation. The EU’s trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic agreed with Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao in June to consultations covering four areas -- trade and investment balancing, export controls, intellectual property rights and WTO reform.

Sefcovic set a deadline of October for “tangible results” on China’s surplus with the bloc. But in return, Beijing has its own demands. These include reducing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports and scrapping controls on exports of chip-manufacturing machines from the Netherlands’ ASML to China.

Relations with Brussels also remain severely strained. EU leaders last July were forced to travel to Beijing to see President Xi Jinping for the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations, even though it was nominally China’s turn to visit Brussels.

The EU leaders held uncomfortable talks with Xi about the surplus and Ukraine. By contrast, since then, Beijing has laid out the red carpet for visits by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, among others. The foreign affairs ministry in Beijing insisted China and Europe were “partners not rivals”.

“China has always supported the process of European integration and is committed to developing relations with EU institutions and member states on a comprehensive, balanced, equal and mutually beneficial basis," the article points out.

However, at the corporate level, many EU companies are suffering from China’s export controls on rare earths introduced last year during the trade war with the US, the article added.

--IANS

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