THERE HAS BEEN an enormous amount of nonsense reported in the last couple of months about the state of economic relations between the European Union and China. First we heard that the EU was adopting an altogether more assertive, even confrontational, stance towards Beijing. Brussels had declared China to be a “systemic rival”, European politicians were slamming the Chinese government’s protectionist industrial policies, and the EU was vowing to stop the Chinese from obtaining cutting edge technologies by acquiring European companies. Relations, it seemed were rapidly deteriorating. Then, miraculously, the skies ... (full story)