The Chinese more and more consider Europe irrelevant in the global game. No surprise, since Europe doesn’t speak with one voice. Almost all European leaders are willing to forget about China’s nasty deeds and policies when it comes to generating trade agreements and deals.

On the other side China is getting more and more protectionist about it’s own economy and building barriers to make it harder for any foreign country to do business.

China is closely tied to the USA – it’s biggest market and debtor. The Chinese hold huge amounts of American debt, plus they sit an a huge cash reserve themselves. This binds those two giant closer together – more than each of them wants to.