Since 2018, Europeans have treated China abysmally. Before 2022, they followed the U.S. in piling on criticism over Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Huawei, human rights, COVID—you name it. After 2022, they shifted to bashing China's trade with Russia. Now, in 2026, they're whining about China's trade surplus with Europe.
The truth is, Europeans have never been friendly with China. China always has problems in their eyes. The only time they were nice to China was when Trump's tariffs had them on their knees—and even then, their overtures to China were really just a ploy to make the U.S. jealous.
So let's face it: Europeans will never like China. But lucky for us, they're very weak—militarily weak, technically weak and economically weak. Their only real talent is running their mouths and pointing fingers at China. They don't even dare to start a real trade war, because they know China's retaliation would hurt them just as badly. China shouldn't hold out hope that Europe will one day warm up to us. What we can look forward to, instead, is Europe becoming increasingly irrelevant in the future.