During Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao's visit to Europe this week, he tried to highlight positive ties with Spain, Portugal, and Greece as a way to create leverage against the growing use of EU trade defense tools on Chinese goods and services.

Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping and President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met in Beijing, leading to the signing of 19 collaboration documents and one joint statement.

Several high-profile state visits in May 2024 have led to a series of new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) documents published by China's General Administration of Customs (GACC) last month.

Last week, China's Ministry of Finance announced that it would suspend tariff concessions for another batch of imports from Taiwan, as a follow-up on Taiwan's "discriminatory trade bans and restrictions on mainland products."

Today, China's Ministry of Commerce, China’s General Administration of Customs, and the Central Military Commission’s equipment development department jointly announced a decision to add certain equipment, software and technologies in the aerospace and aviation sector to the export control regime.

After five months of China's new export controls on graphite, its graphite exports are climbing back quickly, indicating a very limited trade impact of the new rules.

A trilateral meeting among Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol led to an agreement to elevate negotiations on a trilateral free trade agreement, as well as some bilateral mechanisms to revive trade and investment.