Europe ready to talk tougher with Beijing amid China-US spat

ALTHOUGH China and the European Union (EU) do more than a billion euros of business a day, the meeting in cyberspace between their leaders on Sept 14 showed just how far apart they are in political terms.

China's pitch, as made clear in a Global Times commentary before the video conference, was that at a time when the United States was dismantling the institutional structure of global governance, it was urgent for China and the EU to join forces "to resist these dangerous currents".

If China hoped that the meeting would help to get the EU on its side in the worsening conflict with the United States, it was disappointed. Days later, reports surfaced of plans for the EU and the United States to hold a dialogue on China.