EU warned against weaponising market access to coerce China

The European Union is reconsidering its post-Cold War approach of viewing economic interdependence as a source of mutual prosperity with China. Brussels now increasingly treats trade, investment, and technology as tools of strategic competition. Some European analysts advocate using access to the EU's market of 450 million people as a weapon against Chinese economic coercion. However, an opinion piece in the South China Morning Post argues that market size does not automatically translate into coercive leverage. The author contends that the EU remains more dependent on China than policymakers realize, and that effective coercion requires the ability to impose unavoidable costs while remaining resilient to retaliation. The piece warns against overestimating the EU's market power in geopolitical negotiations.