Has the EU finally found its spine when it comes to China?

There is no point putting lipstick on a pig: the relationship between the United States and China, two powers holding a combined 40 per cent of the world’s GDP, is at its most depressing and alarming since the establishment of their diplomatic relations in 1979. As soon as you think bilateral ties couldn’t get any worse, Washington and Beijing prove us wrong by closing consulates and harassing each other’s diplomats.

This puts the European Union, that slow, cumbersome bureaucratic machine, in a tricky position. On the one hand, Europe doesn’t want to rock the boat with either the US or China. Yet on the other, EU officials and European heads-of-state are beginning to realise that the US-China grudgematch is forcing them to do the one thing they want to avoid: pick sides. On everything from trade and technology to high-stakes geopolitics, Europeans are increasingly bearing a resemblance to the struggling teenager caught between two estranged parents.