Theresa Fallon

Great to finally see it in print. Here is my contribution to the Marshall Center's journal Per Concordiam.  Plenty of good reading in this publication dedicated to the topic of China and the EU.     My piece: Smokeless War and Mirrors perconcordiam.com/smokeless-war-…

1/9】ウルズラ・フォン・デア・ライエン欧州委員長、習近平国家主席にEUと中国の関係は「転換点」にあると伝える。 習主席がブリュッセルへの訪問を拒否したため、EU中国サミットは北京で開催される。中国に屈服しているように見えながら、厳しいメッセージを伝えるのは難しい。 …

🧵Ursula von der Leyen tells Xi EU-China ties are at ‘inflection point’ #EUChinasummit is in Beijing bcuz Xi wouldn’t travel to Brussels. Difficult to deliver a tough message while appearing to kowtow to China. on.ft.com/46kdkYW

Important: “Chinese military suppliers prefer Nvidia chips and use A.I. systems trained on U.S. chips. The stakes are not hard to grasp: We should not allow American troops and intelligence officers to be targeted by Chinese A.I. trained on Nvidia chips.” nytimes.com/2025/07/24/opi…

Your moment of cloudy zen (see my banner pic) 'Cloudbusters', 2025 William Cobbing, London

Two wars going on in Ukraine, one against Russia, the other against corruption.

For all those people who are asked if they will travel to China again, here is a useful resource to help assess risk 👀👀

6/ My favorite quote so far from #EUChinaSummit demonstrates Xi’s skill to tell EU leaders what they want to hear. Xi said China and the EU were “big guys in the international community.” Although Beijing long ago abandoned the idea of the EU as a major geopolitical pole,&…

WHERE THE HELL ARE EUROPEAN SANCTIONS? "Chinese-made engines are being covertly shipped via front companies to a state-owned drone manufacturer in Russia, labelled as "industrial refrigeration units" to avoid detection in the wake of Western sanctions, according to three…

2/ The no expectations #EUChinaSummit is a choreographed repetition of longstanding EU grievances. von der Leyen noted “Rebalancing our bilateral relations is no longer optional, it’s essential. But she will not leave the brief meeting w/ any economic “grand bargain.”

3/ EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell described the #EUChinaSummit in 2022 as a “dialogue of the deaf.” He used the phrase because China was unwilling to engage in substantive discussions on key issues, particularly the war in Ukraine, and instead focused on…

4/ Before the #EUChinaSummit, Beijing criticised the recent EU sanctions imposed on two Chinese banks for facilitating trade with Russia.

5/ Chinese export bans on rare earths is of deep concern for European manufacturers. Meanwhile, Chinese trade data shows goods exports to the EU rose 7% to $267bn in the first half of the year, while imports from the bloc shrank 6% to $125bn.

👀👀👀The “borscht effect”