Can Europe win a trade war with China? It may depend on how victory is defined

Brussels is increasingly determined to ensure core industries survive if confrontation with Beijing proves unavoidable 5 -MIN READ5 -MIN Listen Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels Published: 10:00pm, 20 Jul 2026 As trade tensions with China reach boiling point, EU officials are ramping up engagement with Beijing in search of an off-ramp. Quietly behind the scenes, though, Europe is preparing for a trade war. In Brussels, a steely determination has set in to ensure the bloc’s manufacturing heartlands are not deindustrialised by the “China Shock 2.0”. With some industries already haemorrhaging jobs, the EU’s resilience-building and de-risking plans are now laced with deterrents…