The problems with China’s efforts to patch things up with Europe: ‘there are limits’

They may be stuck in a stalemate, with Beijing unlikely to yield on demands to intervene in Russia’s war on Ukraine or change economic model

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Published: 11:00pm, 26 May 2025Updated: 3:33am, 27 May 2025

There have been many signs of a messy divorce between Europe and the United States since Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January, but one of the most stark arrived earlier this month.

A sweeping survey of more than 100,000 people claiming to be the “world’s largest annual study on democracy” found that in Europe, net perceptions of China have overtaken those of the US.

Only in Poland, Hungary and Lithuania is the US more popular than China, according to the study by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, a Danish NGO that was, ironically, sanctioned by Beijing in 2021 for “severely harming China’s sovereignty and interests and maliciously spreading lies and disinformation”.

On the same day the findings were published, Trump himself suggested the feeling was mutual, telling reporters that the “European Union is in many ways nastier than China, OK?”

The real-time unravelling of the post-war alliance has led many to believe that the EU would patch up its testy ties with Beijing, much as it did during Trump’s first term in 2017.

EU leaders have encouraged such speculation by repeatedly saying they are open to deepening trade and investment ties with China. For hawkish European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, it marked a dramatic shift from her combative rhetoric on China since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over three years ago.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will attend a summit in Beijing in July. Photo: Reuters