The scramble for Europe is just beginning Gideon Rachman gideon.rachman@ft.com · 18 Nov 2025 For centuries, Europe imposed its will on the world. Now the world is beginning to impose its will on Europe. A photo taken at Turnberry golf course at the end of July captured the situation. The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was pictured smiling weakly, with her thumbs-up, next to a beaming Donald Trump. The EU had just meekly agreed to accept a 15 per cent base tariff on EU exports to America without hitting back. Von der Leyen and her staff literally had to grin and bear it. The moment was all the more chastening because trade was thought to be the one area where the EU could stand toe-to-toe with global superpowers. The European single market is comparable in size to the economies of China or the US. The EU acts as a single unit on trade issues. In the months running up to the Turnberry debacle, there was plenty of talk in Brussels about European retaliation again...
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The problem with China’s unreliable data Beijing’s GDP figures have drawn scrutiny for years, but the questions have become even more acute amid a property slowdown and reduced transparency in the country. By Thomas Hale nonghutouzi · 18 Nov 2025 As he prepared to speak at a panel in Washington last December, Chinese economist Gao Shanwen tapped the microphone not once but twice, as though to make sure he would be heard. “We do not know the true number of China’s real growth figure,” he began. After the Covid-19 pandemic, many people had doubts about the official GDP figures, which Gao thought were overstated. “My own speculation is that in the past two to three years the real number, on average, might be around 2 per cent, even though the official number is close to 5 per cent.” By January, Gao was no longer chief economist at SDIC Securities, his former employer in Hong Kong. In a WeChat group of Chinese economists, he went quiet. For almost a year, there was no sign of any pub...
Giappone e Germania, i due riarmi «gemelli» che segnano i fallimenti di Xi e Putin 17 novembre 2025, 15:26 - Aggiornata il 17 novembre 2025 , 16:49 Ascolta l'articolo 6 min i Cosa lega la recente crisi scoppiata tra Pechino e Tokyo e la necessità crescente in Europa di ripensare alla propria sicurezza La crisi che è scoppiata fra Cina e Giappone su Taiwan ha come sfondo una novità storica: la prospettiva di un riarmo nipponico . È diventato urgente, è all’ordine del giorno, per le stesse ragioni per cui si sta avviando il riarmo tedesco . Sono due potenze che fecero parte dell’Asse, nella seconda guerra mondiale : così venne chiamata l’alleanza del Patto Tripartito, siglato nel settembre 1940 (ne faceva parte anche l’Italia di Mussolini). Ma il Giappone di oggi e la Germania non hanno nulla in comune con le potenze imperialiste e militariste di 85 anni fa. Hanno in comune invece due problemi: un vicino prepotente e minaccioso; un’America che no...
Tormenta en el coste de la vida El encarecimiento de la cesta de la compra se suma al precio de la vivienda como factor negativo en el día a día de las familias nov 17, 2025 La carestía neutraliza los aumentos salariales de los últimos años y ensancha la brecha generacional LA CESTA de la compra y el precio de la vivienda vienen experimentando una subida que compromete el día a día de las familias. Tanto, que el coste de la vida corre el riesgo de convertirse en un peligroso factor de desafección ciudadana. A esa tendencia al alza no dejan además de sumarse factores coyunturales. Así, desde el pasado jueves, todas las aves de corral criadas al aire libre en España están confinadas. Es la acertada decisión adoptada por el Ministerio de Agricultura para intentar evitar que el brote de gripe aviar —que ya ha obligado a sacrificar 2,7 millones de gallinas— se expanda a nuevas explotaciones. El brote afecta a la producción de huevos y carne de ave, con el consiguiente daño económico p...
Coalitions of the willing are Europe’s path to ever closer union Martin Sandbu martin.sandbu@ft.com · 17 Nov 2025 If the US’s motto — “out of many, one” — sounds hopelessly aspirational in Trump’s divided America, the EU’s could be seen as an oxymoron. “United in diversity” clashes against the received wisdom that diversity is what prevents common solutions. Some may even say that fragmented rivalry was such a key to Europe’s past successes that it has become an ineradicable obstacle to further progress. But what if diversity is the road to unity, rather than a block to be overcome? We hear a lot about “coalitions of the willing” these days — mainly regarding attempts to mobilise military support to protect Ukraine’s security. But the more consequential coalitions of the willing may be those emerging over more mundane matters. This is an old debate in Europe about whether it is better for a vanguard to move ahead with deeper integration or to take the time to find solutions all E...
Clariant warns of chemicals drift to China Chief says cost of energy and labour will drive more production out of Europe WILLIAM LANGLEY — HUIZHOU · 17 Nov 2025 The head of Swiss chemicals producer Clariant has said the company will expand capacity in China and warned of “more production shifting away from Europe” because of the continent’s higher energy and labour costs. Chief executive Conrad Keijzer said Clariant was targeting 14 per cent of its sales coming from China by 2027, up from 10 per cent at present, and that the country would account for more than half of global growth for chemicals over the next five years. The company has expanded two Chinese plants, which Keijzer said would allow Clariant to produce 70 per cent of the chemicals it sells in the country locally, up from about half. “Most of the growth by and large is coming from China,” Keijzer told the Financial Times this month after opening a SFr180mn ($226mn) expansion to two factories in Huizhou, southern China. “It ...
European Rare Earth Site Faces Hurdles BY KIM MACKRAEL Europe is trying to get itself on the global rare-earths map, and a new facility on Russia’s border is its opening bid. The city of Narva in Estonia, once a textiles hub for the Russian Empire, is now host to Europe’s biggest production plant for the kinds of rareearth magnets needed in electric cars and wind turbines. It is part of Europe’s push to secure a foothold in a global supply chain dominated at every step by China. Built by Canada’s Neo Performance Materials and financed in part by the European Union, the factory is expected to begin commercial deliveries to companies including the German car-parts supplier Robert Bosch next year. The problem: Even at the new factory’s initial planned capacity of 2,000 metric tons of permanent magnet material, the plant will produce a fraction of what analysts estimate European manufacturers need. Neo plans eventually to scale up production to 5,000 metric tons, but that...