You can list out the anti-China actions EU has taken in the last 5 years and then compare with what China has done in response. China's actions have always been significantly timid and symbolic compared to whatever EU has done.
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- Thread starter bd popeye
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Tell that to German car makers
I didnt know China nationalized German car brands in China. But EU did takeover Chinese companies. EU banned huawei and many other chinese companies from various sectors. What has China banned that explicitly that is from the EU?
Well China exports more to EU because Chinese workers work harder (albeit I am totally against 996), and Chinese firms make better EVs and other consumer goods through entrepreneurship. The EU over-regulates everything and spoils its own workers like babies (with lavish welfare they disincentivise hard work and entrepreneurship). EU is an example of how NOT to implement socialism by making citizens lazy, fat, entitled, and spoiled. So if market competition were fair and free form protectionism, China’s trade surplus would be much more than $113 billion. Chinese EVs and rail equipment would have driven every European businesses in the same field into the Atlantic Ocean with no chance of survival. But it is only protectionism and the LACK of free trade that is protecting Europe’s lazy workers and zombie industries. If European workers could only work as hard and encourage entrepreneurship like their American counterparts, they would have been much more innovative and efficient. They don’t even have to adopt the 996 hellscape of China, South Korea and Japan. Just be more conservative Murican would have been enough.
So this goes back the grand logic of those controlling the pinnacle of strategic supply chain would usually advocate for free trade, whilst those who have either fallen behind or needed to catch up with their own infant industries would support protectionism, import substitution and Listian industrial policies.
I don’t think your previous analysis captured the reality of China’s economic strategy toward non-U.S. Western competitors. You described China as an “appeaser” that symbolically retaliates and then folds, resetting to “business as usual” with Australia, Canada, and the EU. But if that were truly the case, China’s economic ascent and deep inroads into high-value-chain industries would not have triggered such panic across the developed Western economies.
Take the very examples you mentioned. The reality is the inverse of the “folding” narrative. In high-value sectors — especially passenger vehicles/EVs, renewable energy components, batteries, and solar — China has not bent over and said “more please.” It has advanced aggressively. The data I researched (pre- and post-dispute) shows a decisive structural shift in China’s favor, despite tariffs, security warnings, and intense information campaigns.
Here is the before-vs-after picture:
| Sector | Pre-Dispute (2019–early 2020) | Post-Reset / 2025–2026 | Structural Shift |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passenger Vehicles (incl. EVs) | Chinese brands < 2% market share; almost no EVs | China = #1 source of new vehicles (25–28% YTD 2026); Chinese-built cars = 20–25%+ of all new sales; Chinese brands supply ~77% of all BEVs sold in Australia | Complete reversal. China went from marginal player to dominant supplier in the highest-value consumer durable (cars) |
| EV-specific | Negligible | Chinese EVs dominate sales; BYD and others leading growth | Despite security warnings and “information warfare” from Australian defence circles, consumer demand overrode policy pushback |
| Renewable components (solar, batteries) | Minor supplier | Major supplier of panels, batteries, and related tech | Strong re-engagement and growth |
Europe & UK
| Sector | Pre-2022/2023 | 2025–early 2026 | Structural Shift |
|---|---|---|---|
| EVs & Hybrids | Chinese brands < 1–2% of EV market | Chinese-built vehicles = 19% of European EV market in 2025 → 22% in 2026; Chinese EV/hybrid exports to EU nearly doubled in early 2026 | Rapid penetration despite EU countervailing tariffs (imposed 2024 onward) |
| Batteries & Renewables | Significant but not dominant | China supplies vast majority of imported batteries and solar components; strong growth in high-value green-tech exports | EU tariffs and “de-risking” rhetoric have slowed but not stopped the advance |
Your framing captures an older, commodity-focused pattern that no longer describes the strategic reality. In the sectors that will define economic power for the next decades, China is not appeasing. In my view it is advancing, and Western (plus Japanese/South Korean) attempts to constrain it are proving far less effective than the rhetoric suggests. The structural trade picture has shifted decisively in China’s favour in precisely the high-value areas the West most wants to protect - hence the current EU strategy of borrowing and reversing China's playbook back when it opened up it's economy to western countries investments in exchange for technology transfer, educating its population for market access. The absurdity on this particular scenario is that the EU countries most vociferous in it's condemnation of China's economic "bullying" is that China set the condition when it was technologically backwards and dirt poor and underdeveloped, whereas these western countries are already highly developed economies. So the Europeans are quite sclerotic when it comes to their economic history.
If the Democrats had guts, they ought to deport that demented Canadian back to Canada. Strip him of his "U.S. citizenship" and say he got the citizenship via corruption with his association to the 3rd time soon to be convicted and soon to be former President Trump. But who am I kidding! The democrats are all about the appearance of "rule of law" and delegation or separation of powers. They ain't going to do diddly squat.
supercat
Colonel
Good luck.
How moronic do you have to be to claim that Trump "has been vindicated" in this regard?
Not anymore, because unlike 15 years ago, China has overwhelming military and economic superiority now.
How moronic do you have to be to claim that Trump "has been vindicated" in this regard?
Not anymore, because unlike 15 years ago, China has overwhelming military and economic superiority now.
Two F/A-18G Growlers attempted to combine into a single F-36 in an experimental mating ritual. It was unsuccessful. However, valuable data was collected. Win!
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this was today?
The first table was specifically for AUSTRALIA. I forgot and neglected to double check before posting.