While Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping seek to warm US-Chinese relations in the Californian sunshine this weekend, a chill has descended on ties between Beijing and the EU following a trade clash over solar panels and wine.
Chinese anger – and disdain – towards Europe was on full display in an editorial by the People’s Daily, mouthpiece of the Communist party. Warning the EU against a trade war, it wrote witheringly that shifts in global power “have failed to change the condescending attitude of some Europeans”.
The froideur was prompted by a move on Tuesday by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to slap tariffs on Chinese solar panels that it believes are being dumped on the European market, costing thousands of job losses in Europe in recent years. A day later Beijing responded by saying it would launch an investigation into European wine exports it said were suspected of benefiting from illegal subsidies.