Lionel Laurent, Columnist

It's Not Just Trump. Europe Fears China, Too

The continent is feeling the pressure of a fiercely competitive Chinese industrial-export machine.

November 5, 2024 at 5:00 AM UTC

Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist writing about the future of money and the future of Europe. Previously, he was a reporter for Reuters and Forbes.

Trick or treat.
Photographer: David Hecker/Getty Images Europe

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On Oct. 30, the stirrings of a corporate Halloween were visible in the heart of the euro-area economy — with nary a Trump tariff in sight.

While hundreds of French workers protested a potential sale of struggling chemicals firm Vencorex to a subsidiary of China’s Wanhua Chemical Group Co Ltd., employees at Volkswagen AG threatened to strike over a cost-saving plan that could bring unprecedented German plant closures as the automaker’s 15-year dominance in China comes to an end.