Issue Divergent member-state interests over China complicate a unified EU response

Summary

EU member states differ markedly in their trade and investment exposure to China, in their manufacturing structures and in how they perceive security threats. These differences have produced lasting disagreements over tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, over whether to welcome Chinese investment and over conditions for local production. They extend to perceptions of Russia, fiscal capacity, industrial policy preferences and attitudes toward foreign investment. As a result a coherent EU-level stance on China is hard to sustain even as Brussels strengthens common instruments. The report concludes that outside partners cannot treat the EU only as a single market and policy actor and must also take account of national industrial structures and foreign-policy positions.