To put it in another perspective, maybe MAGA, Russia, and China have a shared interest in dismembering the EU. The reason why EU is not willing to relent a bit (none on market access, none of EV tariffs, etc.) despite Beijing's concession of removing the 2021 Xinjiang-related sanctions is because the EU has a giant market Beijing needs, especially with the current US-China trade war. Von der Leyen's recent speech underlines how EU thinks it has all the leverages in dealing with China. Yet, unlike Biden, Trump currently sees little value in coordinating with the EU in dealing with China. He prefers to take on Xi in an 18th Century gentleman's style dual. Nonetheless, there is little hope that Brussels is willing to put aside its ideology and pragmatically work with Beijing. Thus, maybe Beijing could temporarily suspend all minerals exports to EU to cause dozens of car plants to shut down to create some leverages, whilst preserving the limited flow toward the US as agreed under the London talks. On other words, Beijing could use its rare earth leverage flexibly against Washington today, or Brussels' tomorrow, depending on which side is willing to sit down with Beijing first and offer concrete deescalation plans. In the long term, however, breaking up the EU could allow China (and Russia, US) play China-friendly European countries against both the ideological hardliners (Poland, Czech, and the Baltic States) and heavily protectionist ones (like France).
