When it's hot, buy Chinese air conditioners—Europe decides to put off the trade war against China for now
"A heatwave hits, and Europe realizes it's not easy to wage a trade war against China"—recently, The Wall Street Journal mocked the EU's bluffing on this issue.
The report states that while EU officials are denouncing China for "overcapacity" and "dumping excessive goods into Europe," threatening new trade protection measures, European citizens are instead rushing to buy Chinese air conditioners.
According to data from a German website tracking inventory of a specific Chinese air conditioner model, as of July 1st, only four units remained available across 1,200 stores in Germany.
Earlier, Geoffrey Bral, the mayor of Paris’s 17th arrondissement, had stated he purchased 50 units of another Chinese brand of air conditioner, intending to install them in local schools.
The surge in European demand for Chinese air conditioners stands in stark contrast to the EU’s silence on the matter—precisely exposing that the EU’s accusations of China’s “overcapacity” and “product dumping” are not grounded in economic logic but rather stem from ideological bias.
But faced with relentless extreme heat, the EU’s hypocritical act can no longer hold up—after all, real heat can kill people. Even those white-liberal politicians who usually trumpet environmentalism can do nothing but hide in air-conditioned offices, pretending not to hear.
This is the most absurd reality facing the EU today: while loudly calling for a trade war against China, they dare not actually impose tariffs on Chinese air conditioners. Between showing irrational toughness toward China and preserving their own lives through cooling, the EU has chosen the latter.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1870032023752716/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author