imposes Breadth The gradual progression of the trade war between the major powers today is a new series of countermeasures. While Washington and Brussels move to restrict Chinese imports in sectors with high technological value, Beijing responds by tightening the tools to protect supply chains and trying to establish its image as a defender of the rules-based trading system.
Statements by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick – as reported by the Chinese newspaper Global Times – show a shift in focus from traditional tariffs to targeting specific sectors such as industrial robots and humanoid robots, under the slogan of confronting “state-backed robots.”
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The war of drawings and robots
Lutnick hinted that his country is considering imposing additional measures on imports of Chinese robots, despite them being subject to customs duties, justifying this with considerations of national security and the race for “robotic arms.”
Speaking to the newspaper, General Manager of the Consumer Applications Technology Group, Xiang Li Gang, believes that “this discourse falls under a recurring American pattern of politicization of trade, presenting the competitiveness of Chinese industries as the result of unfair government support,” adding that “China’s superiority in robotics is based on the integration of the national supply chain, the accumulation of innovation and the rapid pace of commercial application.”
The newspaper cites in its report the estimates of Morgan Stanley, which suggest that the number of human-like robots globally will reach about one billion robots by the year 2050, with the gap widening in favor of China in this field, which will double the sensitivity of the United States of America towards this sector.
The US “Match Act” seeks to impose mandatory coordination on Washington’s allies in restricting the export of technology and equipment to China
Europe between pressure and risks
The picture is no less complex in Europe, as discussions within the European Union are progressing towards what the Chancellor described Noah Parkin In a section China Research firm Rhodium said that it is the closest decisive moment in Europe’s policy towards China in years, stressing that “the rise of Chinese industry in the value chain has made it the fiercest competitor to the European manufacturing sector, most of which is centered around Germany.”
The South China Morning Post report indicates that the German Economic Institute attributes the loss of about 400,000 industrial jobs between 2019 and 2025 to Chinese trade policies, with the increasing European trade deficit and the dependence of production chains in Central and Eastern European countries on the German market, which is already affected by Chinese competition.
In parallel, calls are crystallizing in Brussels to accelerate the use of trade defense tools, such as protective fees and quotas, through mechanisms to protect certain sectors, in an attempt to redraw the conditions for access to the European market for Chinese goods, especially in electric cars and green products with technological intensity.
The positions of some European Union leaders – as reported by the same newspaper – show the shift of some countries from a “partner, competitor and opponent” approach towards China at the same time, to a more stringent discourse that focuses on protecting European competitiveness, even at the expense of economic relations with Beijing.
American pressure on the allies
This trade war is no longer limited to one axis, but has extended to disputes between the United States and its allies over the borders of the Union against Chinese trade policies.
The report of the Chinese newspaper Huanqiu quoted the Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, criticizing the American draft “Multilateral Coordination on Hardware Technology Controls” (Match Act), which seeks to impose mandatory coordination on Washington’s allies in restricting the export of technology and equipment to China.
This law – according to what the newspaper quotes from Western reports – practically gives Washington extended jurisdiction over Dutch trade policies in the chip sector and devices for manufacturing them, which directly affects the interests of companies such as ASML in the Chinese market.
Director of the Center for Studies on China-European Relations at Fudan University, Jian Guenbo, explains to the Huanqiu newspaper that the Dutch position is “an attempt to preserve a margin of maneuver between the commitment to restrict exports of advanced equipment for the manufacture of artificial intelligence chips, and maintaining channels for selling and servicing less advanced devices and products that have already been exported to China.”
However, at the same time, the Netherlands’ accession to the US-led Silicon Peace initiative to coordinate artificial intelligence supply chains reveals the predicament of small European countries in balancing mechanisms between American technological security requirements and protecting their commercial interests with China.
Wang Minghui:
The Chinese legislation comes at a time when US export and investment restrictions towards China are expanding, and Europe is accelerating what it calls a risk-reduction policy
Chinese protection shield
In the face of these shifts, China is moving at the domestic and foreign policy levels to secure its industry and supply chains.
China Daily reports that the State Council approved the first regulatory framework dedicated to the security of industrial chains and supply chains, while granting the Ministry of Commerce the authority to open investigations against any discriminatory measures or disruption of normal transactions by foreign countries or entities.
And it allows This legal mechanism allows Beijing to impose trade restrictions, block investments, or impose sanctions on parties deemed a threat to the security of its supply chains, in a form that resembles a weapon against Western embargoes and sanctions.
Wang Minghui, of a research center affiliated with the State Council, points out that this move comes at a time when US export and investment restrictions against Chinese companies are expanding, and Europe is accelerating what it calls a risk-reduction policy.
In addition, China Daily pointed out a new mechanism approved by the Ministry of Commerce to encourage community oversight and public reporting of any violations in the export of strategic minerals and dual-use materials, thus enhancing the state’s ability to control flows of sensitive materials in light of the growing mineral war.
Reshaping supply chains
And he points out The totality of these developments led to the expansion of the trade war from the level of customs duties and electronic chips to an organized conflict over the engineering of supply chains and the rules of the international trading system.
The United States is pushing to move high-value production away from China, and restrict Beijing’s access to advanced technology tools and artificial intelligence, using national laws whose effects extend beyond borders, while Europe is moving towards tightening its trade defenses while trying to preserve its industrial interests.
On the other hand, China is trying to make control of supply chains its defensive and offensive weapon at the same time, as it is the largest user and manufacturer of industrial robots in the world, and the growth of its exports in this sector is accelerating between Vietnam, Mexico and Thailand – according to the Global Times – which links parts of global manufacturing to its chains and gives it additional influence in any negotiation process on trade rules.
This reality leads to a more fragmented world, in which regions of “supply chain alliances” coexist, led by Washington, Beijing, or Brussels, while the options of medium and small countries recede between engaging in technological security arrangements that tighten restrictions, and trying to maintain a state of economic openness.
Given the scale of the current complexities, any further escalation in this legal trade war will carry a direct cost on investment, employment, and growth in major economies, and redefine the concept of economic security as the main determinant of the form of globalization in the coming years.
