Finbarr Bermingham
@fbermingham
Irish journalist. Chief Europe Correspondent @SCMPnews. Reporting on Europe-China. Geopolitical flâneur. Fermanagh man.
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Remarkable shift in German industry thinking on China. From new BDI paper:
“Even if de-risking entails costs, including in the form of counter-reactions, passivity would in the long term be economically considerably more costly & irresponsible from a security-policy perspective”
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Aug 31: Sefcovic tells Politico we need "tangible results" by October
He says Europe needs both increased EU exports to China and to “manage better the Chinese exports to the European Union”.
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Striking physical manifestation of EU-China (+global) trade imbalances: containers go west full of Chinese exports, returning east empty as not enough cargo to fill them
"The disbalance in East-West trade grows even larger, leading to much more empty containers on the backhaul"
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Says the EU as a whole handles large absolute volumes of China-linked goods and provide major US-bound export platforms.
Report explicitly says the alleged transshipment risk is “embedded within broad legitimate trade flows.”
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China has detained several Japanese nationals, including top executives of companies with offices in China, for allegedly violating export restrictions on dual-use goods, Japanese newspaper The Mainichi said, citing multiple sources.
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German economy minister Reiche's answer to Chinese EV competition is to weaken vehicle emissions rules. What decade does she live in?
Reiche: "It is important that Brussels now delivers on making fleet regulation flexible enough to ensure that no fines are imposed"
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The EU has chickened out of two safeguard probes in the chemicals sector because it doesn't want to jeopardise talks with China, @JoannaSopinska (again!) reports
Looks like these probes will be on hold until after October now, despite the industrial emergency
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Spain’s biggest Chinese industrial investment will rely on workers brought in from China during construction, according to a Spanish government report that lays out Madrid’s auto industry blueprint
CATL & Stellantis JV will rely on “expatriate workers” until Q4 of 2028
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A sinking ship? Why the EU and China could be heading for a trade war
Fiery clashes at a conference in Beijing reflect wider tensions that threaten to descend into economic conflict - my report on rapidly worsening EU-China ties for our weekend paper
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