Well, what can China do if EU follows thru with the same tariff on China as US? Doing nothing? That will invite more sanction and tariff on China.
Point is that tariffs will only protect EU and US, but they will not avoid their (ours since I am european) automakers being smashed in international markets.
Ford make more of it business in US but GM do most of its business in Asia.
Same for Germany. German cars are simply non competitive anymore against China, and their future is to loose their export potential.
Protectionism could work for the US and EU if enough money would be invest in the sector to allow it to compete with China. But EU and US prefer to burn hundred thousand millions in Ukraine for the benefit of some shareholders of Raytheon.
German industry also is doomed.
Facing the Chinese innovation would be hard even in best circumstances, taking into consideration the gargantuan advantage of China in education, STEM graduates and financial system.
Facing china while loosing access to Russian natural resources and while burning money in Ukraine is simply impossible.
In this conditions German industry could not compete even with Russian industry in the medium term, much less Chinese. Their destiny is being erased from the list of relevant countries.
It simply does not matter how many tariffs or sanctions EU or US impose on China, the zeitgeist is against them. China has a far better system, more manpower, better education , better access to natural resources.
China will reserve the right to answer in the way they consider of course, but they dont need to impose tariffs since their products are simply more competitive.