EU trade war threat against China called strategic farce

An editorial suggests that the European Union's threat to initiate a trade conflict with China is a misguided strategy, as the EU misjudges its economic influence. Over the past twenty years, the EU's economic decline has occurred at a rate three times greater than that of the late Qing dynasty, a notable example of swift geopolitical downturn. The idea of Chinese overcapacity is unfounded: the EU, home to 450 million individuals (5.5% of the global population), accounts for 16% of worldwide manufacturing, whereas China, with 1.4 billion people (17% of the global population), holds 30%. In terms of per capita manufacturing output, the EU surpasses China, highlighting the EU's reliance on external markets to offload its industrial production.