The South China Morning Post reported in November:

China and the European Union should address their disagreements and form a united front against a “triumphant” Donald Trump, said a former chief of the World Trade Organization, calling the incoming US president a threat to global trade.

The assessment from Pascal Lamy – director general of the Geneva-based multilateral trade organisation between 2005 and 2013 – comes as worries mount over the future of globalisation after the US presidential election last week. In his first term, Trump paralysed the body’s appellate functions.

Trump will pose problems, not just to China but to the EU and many other US trading partners, said Lamy – also an honorary professor with the China Europe International Business School – in an interview on Saturday in Shanghai. [Continue reading…]

Reuters now reports:

China considers Germany and the European Union as a whole as strategic partners, and it wants stronger cooperation with them in the spirit of free trade and multilateralism, the Chinese foreign minister told the German chancellor on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Chancellor Olaf Scholz China was willing to deepen “all-round cooperation” with Germany as part of positive bilateral efforts to maintain global peace and stability.

Wang was in Germany, the EU’s biggest economy, to attend the annual Munich Security Conference and held talks with the EU’s foreign policy chief and his Spanish and French counterparts, as well as with Scholz.

Germany, whose huge car sector is reliant on China, voted last October against the European Union’s tariffs on China-made electric vehicles (EVs).

According to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang conveyed to Scholz China’s appreciation of Germany’s “rational and pragmatic” attitude towards the tariffs.

He said he hoped Germany would “continue to play a constructive role in resolving trade frictions and other issues between China and the EU as soon as possible,” the statement said. [Continue reading…]