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

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-20" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="90614" data-entity-type="event">China Shock 2.0”.With some industries already haemorrhaging jobs, the EU’s resilience-building and de-risking plans are now laced with deterrents as Brussels looks to acquire leverage and credible retaliatory tools that would allow it to respond if China uses trade coercively.Some analysts say the sides are already in a trade war, others think the two sides are still preparing for the inevitable storm – and some say that a trade war should be avoided at all costs.But a question that is increasingly being asked is: could Europe actually win?Few in Brussels share the hubris of US President Donald Trump, who in March 2018 said “trade wars are good, and easy to win”.During a parliamentary hearing last week, the EU’s top trade enforcer, Denis Redonnet, said the purpose of engaging with Beijing was “to avoid sleepwalking at two levels”.