Financial Times: As the EU battles China’s growing trade surplus, Beijing is resorting to what analysts say is a time-tested playbook — attacking Brussels, which sets trade policy for the bloc and wields its collective power, while individually courting many of the more vulnerable 27 member states. In the first half of this year China’s trade surplus with the EU, which hit €360bn in 2025, rose another 24 per cent year-on-year.
Beijing is also quietly leveraging relations with countries adjacent to the bloc, such as the UK and Morocco, to gain access to the EU single market, and is seeking to influence European companies with large operations in China, analysts say…