It is not in the regular stylebook for the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, to evoke bright blue skies, swaying coconut trees, and the soft rustle of sea breezes in a report on international trade.
All these featured in its dispatch from China’s southern island of Hainan last week, marking a change of tone from the agency’s austere standards.
Not a word of suspicion or hostility marred the report on one of the country’s largest fairs, the fifth China International Consumer Products Expo.
The word “imports” does not figure in the event’s title. But alongside China’s national champions, it is a showcase of foreign consumer goods aimed at the domestic market.
So Xinhua’s mission for the day was to show the openness and warmth the People’s Republic feels for its partners in the age of tariffs.
The convention center in Haikou, the capital of Hainan, “buzzed with energy” as crowds flowed through halls “lined with dazzling displays of vehicles, cosmetics and homeware from across Europe,” the dispatch said.
The fair attracted a record 1,767 firms and 4,209 consumer brands from 71 countries, officials said.
Xinhua highlighted a French national pavilion featuring legends like L’Oreal, a clutch of Italian marques such as Ducati motorcycles, and more than 50 brands from the United Kingdom, which was the 2025 “guest country of honor.”
There was, it seemed, no space to mention American exhibitors, who included longtime China players such as Estée Lauder, the multinational giant.
Instead, readers were treated to upbeat talk from the local British Chamber of Commerce and a quote from a Slovak sales manager who marveled that he had “landed in a tropical paradise.”
A Chinese charm offensive is in full swing, and it’s aimed at Europe. The true purpose is to divide the United States from the rest, taking advantage of the Trump administration’s trade policies. It will require a sophisticated and deft response.
Initially, the Chinese overplayed what must have seemed to them a winning hand. They were quick to pick up the phone to Europe when it appeared that the latest Trump tariffs would hit everyone.
The call between Prime Minister Li Qiang and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on April 7, yielded two readouts. The Chinese version quoted Li as saying that the US move was “a typical act of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying.”
“China and the EU are both advocates of economic globalization and trade liberalization, and firm defenders and supporters of the WTO,” Li said, adding piously that the two sides should “jointly maintain free and open trade and investment.”
The Chinese premier evoked a January call between his leader, Xi Jinping, and the President of the European Council, António Costa, when the Chinese leader spoke of “enhancing political mutual trust” and called for the early convening of high-level dialogue ahead of a summit in July to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
There was satisfaction in Beijing, which sensed an opportunity to form a united front. Von der Leyen, however, is made of sterner stuff. The EU readout of her side of the call said she told Li that both China and the EU had the responsibility to support “a strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field.”
She went straight to the heart of the matter between Beijing and Brussels, mentioning overcapacity, a word absent from the Chinese premier’s vocabulary. The EU, among other trading groups, fears that Chinese exports barred from the US will flow into alternative markets, dumping goods and triggering price wars.
This hasn’t happened yet because President Trump has moved so fast, but businesses are frantically working to change supply chains and markets.
Von der Leyen said China had “a critical role” in dealing with what she called “possible trade diversion caused by tariffs, especially in sectors already affected by global overcapacity.”
The two talked about setting up a mechanism to track such changes in trade patterns and ensuring any developments “are duly addressed.” Few in Brussels can have any illusions about the efficacy of any such bureaucratic talk-fest.
The reality — which soon returned after Trump suspended his highest tariff rates for everyone except China — is that the EU faces severe challenges in its commerce with the People’s Republic.
That is why Von der Leyen said it was urgent to find “structural solutions” to rebalance the bilateral relationship and, notwithstanding the subtropical feel-good vibes from the Hainan Fair, why she wanted better access to the Chinese market for businesses, products, and services.
If Premier Li was not, perhaps, expecting this earful, the EU president then turned to China’s role in supporting the Russian war against Ukraine. She archly “invited” China to “intensify its efforts to contribute meaningfully to the peace process,” efforts which both sides know amount to zero at present.
The Chinese state media did its best to capitalize on the moment of division between Europe and the US. A prominent academic told the Global Times, a strident publication controlled by the People’s Daily, that the US not only demanded more military spending from Europe but punished it with tariffs, placing it in “a passive and pressured position.”
The academic, Wang Yiwei, of Beijing’s Renmin University, said that “no matter how Europe tries to appease Washington, the US seems to become increasingly aggressive in its demands.”
Europe, however, has shown a certain amount of steel, which will disabuse those in Beijing who think that the Trump administration has handed them an easy win. Now it is up to the EU to handle a complex, shifting situation with astute diplomacy. It has not made a bad start.
Michael Sheridan’s biography of Xi Jinping, ‘The Red Emperor’, is published by Headline Books, part of the Hachette group. He is the author of ‘The Gate to China: A New History of the People’s Republic and Hong Kong’ (2021) and was Diplomatic Editor of The Independent, Far East Correspondent and later Paris Correspondent of The Sunday Times.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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