Taiwanese group Foxconn is expected to invest 120 million euros in server production and data centres in France partnership with French supercomputer specialist Bull

Chinese automaker SAIC Motor will build its first EV factory in Europe in the Spanish region of Galicia, regional authorities said Monday. The plant is expected to begin construction in the port of A Coruna in 2027 & start production end 2028, with a target of 120,000 EVs p/a

Donald Trump personally urged Xi Jinping to help end the Ukraine war, as he sought to lean on Beijing’s sway over Moscow to resolve a conflict that is now in its fifth year, multiple sources have said. Top scoop by my great colleague Dewey Sim

Very interesting item on the agenda for Coreper 2 this Wednesday "EU-Republic of Korea Competitiveness Alliance: Authorisation to negotiate a non-binding instrument"

New OECD report: "Industrial firms based in China receive more subsidies than competitors based everywhere else. Between 2005 and 2024, Chinese firms received on average 3-8 times more gov support than firms based in the OECD, a conservative estimate" www.oecd.org/en/publicati...

This should be brilliant on Thursday in Brussels. Sandbu vs Pettis on a panel about global imbalances... with the excellent Maria Demertzis involved too. Sandbu today in the FT: Europe is running from a phantom China threat Pettis, I am sure, will have plenty to say on that

My new favourite new chart to illustrate EU-China tensions: "The Global Times tone on EU-China trade", via Soapbox Can clearly see highs of CAI signing, zero-Covid ends, lows of EV row & current friction "In Q2 2026, the tone has dropped back to a very confrontational level"

Another retaliatory threat from Beijing over the weekend. Mofcom, Saturday: “If the EU insists on unilaterally introducing new trade instruments & imposing discriminatory restrictions, China will resolutely retaliate and take effective measures to safeguard its own interests"

🇪🇺🇨🇳 Peking hrozí odvetou, pokud Evropská unie omezí import z Číny. Jde o jeden z dalších kroků, kvůli kterému ekonomové mluví o možnosti obchodní války mezi EU a Čínou. Víc v rozhovoru vysvětluje @fbermingham.bsky.social @irozhlas.cz

God The Telegraph is ghoulish. 26 innocent and unarmed civilians being shot by the UK Armed Forces gets parsed as "something went badly wrong", then gives Bob Stewart free rein to give out about military reputations being undermined.

I was interviewed about EU China trade tensions by Czech public media (article in Czech)

Says the country with “Lord Lebedev of Siberia” awarded a life peerage by the PM who went against the advice of security services when appointing him 😆

A reminder some things are long, difficult, nuanced. The world’s most popular form of entertainment is still like this at its best: a saga, grudging in rewards, despite what you might hear about instant content, reel culture, junk attention spans of young people www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Something moving in Berlin? Germany has signaled its willingness for the EU to take firmer action to stop a surge in Chinese goods, buoying a new push by the European Commission to strengthen the bloc’s trade defenses.

Brussels fires starting gun on tougher China trade policy, as Beijing vows retaliation Story on today's debate www.scmp.com/news/china/d...

Understand Friday's commission debate on China went as expected. Sefcovic outlined what they see as a direct link between trade with China and European deindustrialisation. Presented a diversification instrument and the need to use safeguards to protect key industries.

Commission China debate is now over - short readout "Current state of the trade & investment relationship is not sustainable" & "requires a more robust and coherent response" "China is a critical partner, engagement & dialogue will continue while comms channels remain open"

A coalition of 23 EU industry groups release a letter calling for a more aggressive trade policy to deal with "unfair trade practices and structural overcapacity/oversupply in non-market economies" 4 demands: 1. More trade defence staff 2. Use existing instruments earlier

As EU commissioners debate China, a new threat, via the CCTV-linked Yuyuan Tantian Weibo account If EU moves on overcapacity instrument "China could initiate anti-discrimination investigations and supply chain security probes in response to the EU's relevant actions"

As I was saying: "Spain is withdrawing its support from a French-led initiative to boost the EU’s trade defenses against China, trade minister said Thursday. “There was no specific political support of any non-paper at this stage,” Carlos Cuerpo said" www.politico.eu/article/spai...

‘We’ll be a museum’: EU heavyweights back industrial accelerator as China shock fears grow My report on today's debate about the IAA www.scmp.com/news/china/d...

I was lucky to get an advance copy of @chadpbown.com and @soumayakeynes.ft.com's new book How to Win a Trade War - which I have been really enjoying 🤓 It comes out in the UK today - what are you waiting for?!

Chinese response to EU's safeguard plans is a mirror image of EU response to Trump last year: "If one looks only at trade in goods, without considering trade in services, focus only on headline trade figures... it will naturally lead to a one-sided conclusion of trade imbalance"

Breaking: Brussels goes after 2 Chinese giants in sweeping regulatory moves Temu fined €200 million for breaching the Digital Services Act Commission opens in-depth foreign subsidies probe into JD.com's $2.5 billion takeover of German retailer Ceconomy

Important day for EU industrial accelerator act At the competitiveness council, a first member state debate has just kicked off: an early chance to see where the capitals stand. Debate is public, Séjourné is speaking now - will gather the most interesting bits in this thread

Europeans addressing Singapore's Shangri-La Dialogue this weekend: Carsten Breuer — Chief of Defence, Germany Giuseppe Cavo Dragone — Chair of the Military Committee, NATO Onno Eichelsheim — Chief of Defence, Netherlands Thanos Dokos — National Security Adviser to the PM, Greece

New: On the table at Friday's Commission China debate: - diversification instrument - broader use of safeguard measures (tariffs & quotas) - broad use of FSR in a sector-focused way to combat market distortions by subsidised Chinese firms My report

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet new Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar early Friday afternoon. Since the Commission's orientation debate on China is scheduled for Friday morning, they must not be expecting it to run on too late...

Several stories today showing how fear of retaliation can paralyse EU planning on China 1. Germany & Spain lead opposition to Brussels plans to ban Huawei & ZTE from telecoms networks. They want to keep state-level control amid concerns that bans risk retaliation from Beijing

Sino-Czech reset continues "The Czech minister confirmed Czech Republic's interest in pragmatic and balanced relations with China" "Wang praised... that the current Czech government is restoring the trajectory of relations from which both countries can benefit" "Both ministers discussed Taiwan"

Thought-provoking piece from Nadine Godehardt and Maximilian Meyer in the Diplomat on the deterioration in EU-China ties "At its core, the current impasse is also about symbols and language: Europe and China have, in many ways, forgotten how to speak to one another"

Marginal improvement in mood for EU biz in China, chamber survey: - 68% said doing biz in China became more difficult over the previous year, down 5% on last yr -17% expressed optimism about their two-year profitability outlook, up 5% - 47% said biz more politicised, down 5%

I had to double check that this was not in the Onion when I saw it Tony Blair says Labour must abandon net zero, support Trump and move firmly to the right www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I hear many Liverpool fans slagging Arsenal because the Angel (North London forever) was "manufactured" and not an organic Arsenal FC football song. Do they also realise that You'll Never Walk Alone was also not written for or about Liverpool FC?

The EU is debating whether to engage in direct talks with Russia while Russia is threatening to kill EU diplomats.

HOW TO WIN A TRADE WAR is officially published in the US today!!! Last week was so incredibly amazing but also so busy @soumayakeynes.ft.com and I had some serious Lady Gaga vibes

"The BTI has concluded that the proposed acquisition of Solvinity may pose a risk to the public interest. The BTI has advised proceeding to a complete prohibition of this acquisition"

It's like a proof of life video in a hostage situation.

José Luis Blanco, chief executive of Hamburg-based Nordex, said the EU had not gone far enough with proposed regulations requiring projects that receive public support to use equipment made in the bloc and exclude “high-risk” suppliers. www.ft.com/content/d...

Big debate going on about Spain signing the non-paper calling for a tougher trade policy towards China, along with France, Italy, Netherlands and Lithuania. It's been presented as a big u-turn and Moncloa has now come out saying: "Spain has not formally signed any document on this matter."

The stress of discovering a musician you really like through their eighth album... so much music, so little time.

Serbian president Vucic wrote a piece in SCMP before his trip to China this week calling for Europe to pull closer to Beijing. It's also an elegy to Xi Jinping... Some extracts

A coalition of major EU member states is pushing Brussels towards a much tougher trade regime aimed at combating Chinese-style industrial overcapacity, including faster emergency tariffs, broader safeguards and new anti-circumvention powers

A coalition of major EU member states is pushing Brussels towards a much tougher trade regime aimed at combating Chinese-style industrial overcapacity, including faster emergency tariffs, broader safeguards and new anti-circumvention powers

@chadpbown.com's guest, @fbermingham.bsky.social, frames the challenge well for countries dealing with both superpowers. That those calling on China aren't pivoting, but rather, having to already deal with US antagonism, they are an effort to tone things down to help avoid fighting two trade wars.

Here’s what @chrdnet.bsky.social and a few friends think those @europarl.europa.eu members should do in #China, where authorities continue to commit grotesque #humanrights violations. www.nchrd.org/2026/05/join...

As previously reported, MEPs from the Parliament’s China delegation are off to Beijing and Wuhan next week for the second round of talks since normalisation with Chinese lawmakers

Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is expected in Brussels for crunch talks with EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic on June 29 and 30, as trade tensions between the sides threaten to reach fever pitch.

VW is not currently in talks with Chinese ​manufacturers regarding overcapacity at its car plants in Europe, although the problem does have to ‌be addressed, CEO Oliver Blume told a general assembly of workers on Wednesday www.reuters.com/worl...

Trump just said of his son: "He's a person I've known for a very long time"