this post was submitted on 14 May 2025
41 points (95.6% liked)

Europe

5865 readers
1141 users here now

News and information from Europe 🇪🇺

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in !yurop@lemm.ee. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
  10. Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.

(This list may get expanded as necessary.)

Posts that link to the following sources will be removed

Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media. Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com

(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)

Ban lengths, etc.

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to any of the mods: @federalreverse@feddit.org, @poVoq@slrpnk.net, or @anzo@programming.dev.

founded 10 months ago
MODERATORS
 

Archived

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Monday brushed off European Union complaints about treatment by Beijing, instead touting half-a-century's progress in economic ties.

However, recent remarks by the EU's top envoy suggest a thaw may be elusive—even as Beijing courts Brussels in a bid to capitalize on a growing rift with the United States.

[...]

Speaking at a Shanghai event on Friday, EU Ambassador to China Jorge Toledo echoed the long-standing concerns of many European firms about preferential treatment of local competitors in the Chinese market.

"We have not been taken seriously when it comes to trade barriers," Toledo said. "Market access barriers [for European companies in China] are not going down. They're going up."

"We strongly feel that we not only do not have a level playing field for our companies in China, that the situation is not improving … there is something that has to be done," Toledo added.

[...]

The trade dispute between China and the EU escalated last October after Brussels raised tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to as high as 45.3 percent, citing concerns over overcapacity that undercuts local manufacturers.

[...]

The two sides also remain at odds over material support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with European officials saying Chinese authorities haven't done enough to curb dual-use exports that support Moscow's war machine.

[...]

Grzegorz Stec, analyst with the Mercator Institute for China Studies' Brussels office, wrote in February: "Beijing is betting that pressure from Washington will send Europe into the arms of China to counterbalance trans-Atlantic tensions.

"Despite such views from Beijing, the lacking trust and persisting fundamental divergences of interests between China and Europe, even with Trump in the picture, mean there is a limit to any potential rapprochement."

[...]

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 3 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (3 children)

Europe's gonna have to choose to either:

  • support Ukraine and drop China and Russia
  • support Russia and China and drop Ukraine

It's difficult seeing a path forwards where supporting Ukraine and China simutaneously makes any modicum of sense

Edit:
I'm personally of the opinion in supporting Ukraine (Slava Ukrani!🌻) and dropping China and Russia

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 16 points 13 hours ago

If you don't support Ukraine, the continent will face the consequences. Ukraine is fighting on Europes behalf.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 11 points 14 hours ago

I don‘t think it even should be a choice. If Ukraine falls we‘ll have a lot more problems on the continent and have to prepare for further Russian expansion as well as Chinese aggression. It‘s just not worth to give up Ukraine because we‘ll get nothing in return in the long run. Evil is evil and what they‘re doing to Ukraine, they‘d to to everyone else.

[–] Szewek@lemm.ee 8 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

How about:

We support Ukraine

We drop Russia (we don't need that gas and oil anyway, it's 2025, we have the technology to ditch fossil fuels, common!) as long as Putin and other fascists like him are in power.

We negotiate and trade with China. We do not support it, but we do not actively fight it either. We try to push it further from Russia if possible.

Dropping China altogether does not seem plausible in the near future. We need to learn how to deal with China. We have a lot of leverage, especially with Trump in power and the trade war escalating further after stagnation under Biden.

[–] randomname@scribe.disroot.org 9 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

I hate to say that, but China doesn't appear to be a reliable partner (which countries are China's allies, if any?).

The government in Beijing pursues its own agenda and its own agenda only. That's not a good base for a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship.

According to Chinese state-controlled media outlet South China Morning Post, for example, China's Xi Jinping kicked off his state visit to Russia this week by thanking Moscow for supporting Taiwan’s reunification with mainland China.

In a signed article in Russia’s state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper ... [Xi Jinping wrote that Taiwan's] unification [with China] must be upheld as part of the post-war international order ... Celebrating the “enduring friendship” between Moscow and Beijing, he said the two countries had supported each other since World War II ...

Russia's war in Ukraine and China's aggression against Taiwan are closely linked, at least for China. Beijing wants control over Taiwan (and supposedly over the South China Sea and other neighbouring areas in Asia, including a part of Siberia which is currently Russian territory).

[Edit typo.]