Beijing’s Trade War With EU Betrays Weakness, Not Strength

As the CCP provides the industrial and financial lifeblood for Moscow’s war machine, the European Union is finally awakening.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to Chinese leader Xi Jinping (unseen) during a meeting in Beijing on Dec. 4, 2025. Adek Berry-Pool/Getty Images

Commentary

For decades, the European Union (EU) has lived luxuriously under the comfortable illusion that a deeper economic embrace would civilize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Today, as the CCP provides the industrial and financial lifeblood for Moscow’s war machine, that dream lies buried beneath the rubble of Ukrainian cities.