Economic Daily: Equal Negotiation Is the Right Path to Resolve China-EU Differences

The significance here is less about the hybrid vehicle talks themselves than about the framing: Beijing's flagship economic paper is publicly rejecting the premise that pressure has moved China, which narrows the space for the EU's dual-track approach to be presented as productive. The explicit warning that invoking the anti-coercion instrument would erode mutual trust signals where Beijing is drawing its line, and it matters most for European exporters exposed to any escalation beyond autos. Whether the EU treats the anti-coercion instrument as leverage or as a last resort is the open question to watch.