Political tensions between the European Union and China have grown after the bloc restricted Chinese enterprises and products from participating in public procurement of medical devices, while Beijing launched retaliatory measures.
The growing tensions may impact the EU-China Summit, currently scheduled to be held in China July 24-25 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic relations.
Both sides planned to hold the first day of the meeting in Beijing and the second in Anhui, a hub for China’s high technologies such as quantum computing, fusion energy, and biotechnology. However, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government may cancel the second-day activity.
On June 20, the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, excluded Chinese companies from the EU government’s procurement of medical devices exceeding €5 million (US$5.84 million). The EC said the measure seeks to incentivize China to cease discriminating against EU firms and EU-made medical devices, and to treat EU companies with the same openness as the EU treats Chinese companies and products.
It added that the move is a response to China’s long-standing exclusion of EU-made medical devices from Chinese government contracts.
Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister and a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s politburo, met with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on July 2. Wang said the EU and China, two great civilizations and major forces, should strengthen communication, enhance mutual trust, and assume responsibilities amid the increasingly complex and challenging international landscape.
Wang also held a four-hour meeting with the European Commission’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, on the same day.
The Chinese government has not yet confirmed whether the EU-China Summit will end earlier. Some commentators have suggested that the potential shortening of the Summit is retaliation against the EU’s suppression of China’s medical device sector.
“There is no fundamental conflict between China and the EU, but rather extensive common interests,” Wang said. “Today’s Europe faces various challenges, but these challenges have not come from China in the past, present or future.”
He urged the EU to develop a more objective and rational understanding of China and adopt a more positive and pragmatic policy toward it.
According to a South China Morning Post report, Wang told Kallas that Beijing did not want to see a Russian loss in Ukraine because it feared the US would then shift its whole focus to China. The report stated that some EU officials were taken aback by the frankness of Wang’s remarks.
To retaliate against the EU’s new medical device procurement measure, the Chinese Ministry of Finance announced on July 6 that it excludes EU companies from participating in China’s medical device procurement exceeding 45 million yuan (US$6.3 million).
The new rule does not apply to medical devices that can only be sourced from the EU. It has come into effect immediately.
China also imposed “anti-dumping” taxes of up to 34.9% on brandy imported from the EU starting July 5.
“In July 2025, China launched precise countermeasures against the EU: shortening the EU-China summit, restricting the purchase of Europe’s medical equipment, and imposing tariffs on brandy, sending a clear signal that China’s tolerance has come to an end,” Li Yan, a columnist and a medical expert in Nanjing, says in an article.
“As the competition between China and the United States becomes the main theme of the world today, the EU can no longer play both sides between the world’s two largest economies as it did in the past,” Li says.
“The EU wanted to take advantage of the US-China tensions and asserted pressure on China to create a diplomatic bargaining chip in the EU-US trade negotiations,” she says. “However, this strategy ignores the changes in China, which is no longer the world factory that only seeks market share and swallows its anger, but a global power that has the ability, willingness, and means to defend its national interests.”
She says Beijing’s stance is clear: China is willing to talk, but is not afraid of confrontations.
EU-US trade negotiations
EU-China relations turned sour against the backdrop of the EU-US trade negotiations. After US President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs for all major countries on April 2, including a 20% tariff for the EU, he agreed to charge them only a 10% tariff within 90 days from April 9.
The Financial Times reported that on June 17, the EU abruptly canceled a planned economic and trade dialogue with China. The EU has reportedly expressed concerns about China’s stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine, market access barriers, and overall trade imbalances.
“When the EU suddenly called off the China-EU high-level economic and trade dialogue on June 17, the reason was that there was no progress in the trade talks,” Sima Pingbang, a Shanxi-based columnist, says in an article.
“But look at what the EU has done – imposing a 35.3% punitive tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, restricting Chinese companies from participating in its medical equipment procurement, hyping up the dairy subsidy investigation and even sanctioning two Chinese banks for ‘aiding Russia,’” Sima writes.
“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s ‘strategic dialogue in Brussels on July 2 was more like an ultimatum to the EU,” he says. “Kallas said the EU would prepare for the upcoming Summit, but she did not compromise anything on the sanctions list. China’s patience finally ran out.”
Sima says the EU now understands that Beijing’s patience is not for any “partners” who stab China in the back. He says there is still some time before the EU-China Summit, perhaps the EU side will change its mind.
A researcher from China’s Choyon Information Technology, citing data from MedTech Europe, said the total EU public medical procurement in 2024 was €42 billion, of which €13.1 billion, or 31.2%, involved Chinese suppliers. The top three products sourced from China are: MRI coils (35%), high-end CT (28%) and cardiac interventional devices (24%).
The researcher said that to find alternatives to these products, European firms need to pay additional costs of up to 60%. That means €7.8 billion.
In 2024, French brandy exports to China totaled approximately €1.4 billion per year. A 35.3% punitive tariff imposed by China translates to a tariff payment of €494 million.
Some observers have said that these costs are significant to the EU and its firms, but they are tiny compared with the tariffs that the bloc would have to pay the US if the EU-US trade negotiations collapse.
In 2024, the EU’s total exports to the US totaled €532.3 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of €198 billion.
A 10% tariff would cost the EU about €53 billion, while a 20% tariff would cost €106 billion. Trump had once threatened to increase tariffs to 50% (€266 billion) if the EU retaliated.
Trump signed an executive order on July 7 extending the tariff deadline for most countries and regions, including the EU, to August 1. He warned that US allies such as Japan and South Korea would face a 25% tariff next month if they don’t cooperate.
The EU said Wednesday it hopes to reach an outline trade deal with the US within days.
Read: US uses ‘poison pills’ to isolate China from supply chains
