Strange noises coming out of Estonian FM trip to Beijing on EU-China FTA "Margus Tsahkna told Reuters that he discussed with Wang Yi a "very important" EU-China FTA that was different to the CAI, but added that China's support for Russia might slow down its completion"

New Chinese trade data for Oct out today - slightly more stable numbers for EU: EU: Exports to China up 4% Imports from China up 0.9% China's trade surplus down 2% Germany Exports to China up 5.3% Imports from China up 5.4% China's trade surplus up 5.6%

EU industry boss Séjourné has been talking China to Italian daily La Stampa "We need to introduce conditionality for foreign investment. There are manufacturers in Europe that assemble Chinese cars with Chinese components and workers, in Spain and Hungary. This is not good."

7 minutes on Asia: Europe’s struggle for relevance in the age of China and Trump’s ‘G2’ My long read on the EU's drift to the margins on China - and almost everything else

Huge Nexperia news The Netherlands is prepared to suspend a ministerial order that gave it control over Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia if chip shipments resume in the coming days

New Dutch government Nexperia statement: Given constructive nature of talks with Chinese authorities, the Netherlands trusts that the supply of chips from China to Europe and the rest of the world will reach Nexperia’s customers over the coming days.

The European Commission launched an anti-subsidy investigation into tyres for cars and lighter trucks and buses from China on Thursday, citing sufficient evidence that Chinese producers were receiving unfair benefits from the government.

NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives. ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

The Trump administration has added “poison pill” termination clauses to trade pacts with south-east Asian countries, creating a new diplomatic weapon in Washington’s strategic competition with China.

💥Explosive new statement from Nexperia Netherlands overnight - can't guarantee the IP, tech, authenticity and quality standards for products delivered from Nexperia China as of Oct 13 - refutes rumours that Chinese CEO Zhang Xuetong is back www.nexperia.com/abo...

Wow... VW to develop its own AI chips for autonomous driving, but in China "By designing and developing the System-on-Chip here in China, we are taking control of a key tech that will define the future of intelligent driving," CEO Oliver Blume said

Chinese analysts don't expect Nexperia fate to be resolved soon: “None of the parties want to appear to be making concessions prematurely,” said Zhao Zhijiang, at Beijing think tank Anbound. “This process will not be swift”

Chinese state owned rolling stock manufacturer CRRC targeted again by EU foreign subsidies regulation. This time over a procurement ts der for light rail vehicles in Portugal.

Very good read @JohnDelury: What China wants from Europe "First thing Europeans must keep in mind is that at the level of grand strategy Europe isn't a priority. US remains the unavoidable great power China confronts... Beijing in a funny way has an America First foreign policy"

Crazy - just read that this Italian journalist, Gabriele Nunziati, was fired by the Nova news agency in Rome for asking this question newsletter.euractiv.com/mail/55c6247...

The European Commission has opened an I depth investigation into the takeover of Anglo American's nickel business by Chinese state controlled MMG Says it could "enable MMG to divert ferronickel supply away from European markets"

NEW Nexperia update: Commission tells me Mofcom has been "engaging with EU companies in recent days to restore partial flow of chips" Welcomes development to "avoid a worst-case scenario & creates time & space for China and Netherlands to find a stable, lasting solution"

Awful... European leaders including Friedrich Merz and Ursula von der Leyen will skip the EU’s summit with Latin American and Caribbean states due in part to concerns over angering Donald Trump.

European Parliament's foreign affairs committee has a new draft China position paper. Recommendations for Council / Commission "Regard China as a decisive enabler of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and strongly reiterate condemnation of China’s support"

Mystery deepens on Nexperia this morning. After White House claimed it was solved and Sefcovic hailed progress, a MOFCOM statement today throws the Dutch government under the bus "The Dutch side continues to act unilaterally without taking concrete steps to resolve the issue"

Wadephul spoke to Wang Yi by phone after trip to China was last week cancelled "I look forward to visiting China ASAP at a time convenient for China to have in-depth discussions...Wang Yi welcomed the visit to China at an appropriate time"

Xi Jinping met Russian PM Mishustin in Beijing today "Xi Jinping pointed out that since the beginning of this year, China-Russia relations have been steadfastly moving forward amidst a turbulent external environment"

France's finance minister threatened on Monday to ban Shein from the country if the Asian e-commerce giant resumes selling "childlike" sex dolls, just days before it opens its first physical store in Paris

Qatar's energy minister on Monday warned the Gulf state would halt its supply of liquefied natural gas to Europe over Brussels's planned environmental and human rights rules. Refers specifically to Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive

Estonia and Taiwan in a stalemate over plans to open a de facto Taiwanese embassy in Tallinn Taipei wants to follow the Lithuania name "Taiwanese Representative Office," while Estonia insists on using "Taipei" out of concern about a Chinese backlash.

1/When @himself.bsky.social and I wrote about the future of US economic coercion we hoped that the tools could be used for global collective goods like climate. Now US “evaluating sanctions on officials sponsoring activist-driven climate policies”’ on.ft.com/4qJF3Ko

On Nexperia / rare earths blob - raised at EU daily presser Spox refused to say if EU tech boss Virkunnen knew of US-China Nexperia deal before she met Nexperia Friday EU doesn't think it's covered by "general licenses" White House says "de facto" ends April rare earth controls

Finished reading Fishman’s Chokepoints over the weekend. Strongly recommend as a companion piece to what's unfolding in real time with Nexperia, rare earths etc. But a sometimes depressing reminder of how little Europe has done to become competitive or resilient in the meantime.

Top Belgian neurologist Steven Laureys joins China’s Hangzhou Normal University "World-renowned neurologist and consciousness research pioneer Steven Laureys has taken up a full-time university position in eastern China’s Zhejiang province"

Chinese foreign ministry just confirmed King Felipe VI of Spain will visit China from November 10-13

A British university complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, leading to a major project being dropped, the Guardian can reveal.

Trump on Taiwan He (Chinese President Xi Jinping) has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, we would never do anything while President Trump is president, because they know the consequences"

Confirmed: In the White House fact sheet on China trade deal: "China will take appropriate measures to ensure the resumption of trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China, allowing production of critical legacy chips to flow to the rest of the world."

South Fermanagh. Cuilcagh boardwalk, aka Stairway to Heaven. Not often blessed with blue skies in Nov 1 around here. Made the most of it

Big news: Chinese commerce ministry will consider relaxing export controls on Nexperia that are threatening to cripple the European car supply chain But reporting suggests the breakthrough came during US-China talks rather than EU / Netherlands-China

Sefcovic in Rome says China's pause of Oct 9 rare earth controls applies to Europe "My understanding is the agreement between the US and China in this matter, is 'erga omnes', so we should apply it to all and, of course, including the EU"

Bloomberg reports the EU is weighing a new trade measure that would require some Chinese exporters to supply critical raw materials to the bloc’s stockpiles when shipping certain goods into the EU.

Big news in the Nexperia saga and for the chip crunch ahead of EU-China talks today Nexperia has suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant, according to a letter addressed to its customers that was reviewed by Reuters

The Spanish king will travel to China next month as part of his country’s efforts to bolster ties with Beijing, the first European monarch to embark on such a trip in seven years.

If anything, Trump-Xi talks have emphasised the tight spot the EU is in going into tomorrow's talks on export controls with China. In order to lift rare earth restrictions for a year, Trump lowered tariffs, seems to have opened the door to Chinese investments, and paused probes

Trump on Air Force 1 says the issue of Ukraine was raised and the two sides talked about it for a long time.. Trump says the US is willing to work together with China to see if they can “get the war finished”

“The far right can only govern if the centre right cooperates”, @carolinedegruyter.bsky.social says. “Everyone claims the voters shift to the far right but it is a rightward shift of the political parties.”

The soap opera that is UK China relations rolls on... The sale of Telegraph Media Group is in fresh turmoil after the company’s own newspaper linked its presumed new owner to the suspected ringleader of the alleged Chinese spy ring in Westminster

Truly seems we're on the verge of a huge shock to the car industry over the Nexperia crisis - will keep track of things in this rolling thread EU's car-making body said today assembly lines in Europe "might only be days away" from grinding to a halt

Scoop: Despite the crisis in German China relations, German vice chancellor Lars Klingbeil is expected in Beijing next month to chair party to party talks between his Social Democrat Party and the Chinese Communist Party

Stark warning from the European car industry association over Nexperia "The industry is currently working through reserve stocks but supplies are rapidly dwindling. From a survey of our members this week, some are already expecting imminent assembly line stoppages."

Bad to worse for Sino-German ties: The "flagship" German-Chinese business event has been cancelled, less than a week after FM Wadephul cancelled his own trip...

EU-China talks on rare earths will now take place all day on Friday. Chinese negotiators will land in Brussels on Thursday. Probably useful to have the Trump Xi summit a day earlier - if there's a loosening of rare earth controls for the US, no doubt EU will ask for the same...

Well, well, well... Boris Johnson approved the China’s super-embassy proposal in 2018 and welcomed the fact it would represent “China’s largest overseas diplomatic investment” anywhere in the world

Kallas talking again about her infamous meeting with Wang Yi in the Economist Kallas says “his message was that it’s not in their interest that this war [in Ukraine] stops, because then America’s attention will turn to China.”