Europe’s phoney war with China is at an end. After years of building up an improved arsenal for a trade war, Europe is now showing it is willing to get tough on Beijing.
On Tuesday, EU investigators swooped on the Dutch and Polish offices of Nuctech, a maker of security scanners, in a case that hinges on one of Europe’s longest running grievances with China — lavish state subsidies that help Chinese firms undercut European rivals.
Nuctech was once run by Hu Haifeng, son of President Xi Jinping’s predecessor, Hu Jintao, and China’s reaction was predictably seething. The raid “highlights the further deterioration of the EU’s business environment and sends an extremely negative signal to all foreign companies,” China’s mission to the EU fumed.
The timing of such an inflammatory raid seems significant, ahead of a trip to Europe by Xi next month — his first in five years, taking him to France, Serbia and Hungary — marking a definitive shift in the way that Europe is prepared to tackle its trade problems with China.
The EU wants to keep people buying overpriced garbage instead of cheap garbage.
Why? I have no idea.
I think that the main concern is, that EU has implemented certain quality requirements for its consumers, that are not being upheld by shops like these. It undermines the standards. I don’t see any issues with buying/selling products from China or other countries, inside the EU, but I understand that they need to live up to the standards required by the EU
Plastic doohickeys have quality standards in the EU? This is news to me tbh
I know it’s true for more robust goods, but Temu isn’t exactly used to buy cars
Plastic doohickeys indeed have quality standards in the EU, e.g. plenty of phalates are limited to banned depending on product category (e.g. children’s toys). Without adherence to those standards no CE mark, without that no sales on the internal market.