The European Commission held a landmark internal meeting on Friday to align its strategy on Chinese imports, as mounting concern over industrial overreliance and unfair competition pushes Brussels toward concrete trade measures. Commissioners representing all 27 member states were asked to bring examples of Chinese activities across every policy portfolio — from trade and agriculture to defence, digital, and health — in what officials described as an effort to coordinate thinking rather than take immediate decisions. The debate feeds into a broader process expected to produce clearer answers by late June, when EU leaders meet at a summit in Brussels.

The urgency stems from what analysts are calling China Shock 2.0 — a reference to the disruption that followed China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, when trade balances shifted sharply. Today, the EU's trade deficit with China stands at roughly €350–360 billion, and in some sectors imports have grown by 20 percent in just the first months of this year. Chinese products can arrive up to 40 percent cheaper than locally made equivalents, partly because Beijing subsidises manufacturers through cheap land, preferential loans and state grants — support estimated by the IMF at around $800 billion per year. The affected sectors range from electric vehicles and solar panels to steel, chemicals, and medical devices. According to the European Commission's industry commissioner Stéphane Séjourné, 29 million European jobs are at risk, and the threat to chemical, metallurgical and clean-technology industries is, in his words,