Commission officials will travel to Beijing in September for crunch talks on EU-China relations as Europe’s annual trade deficit with China doubled to €400bn in two years.
The EU is looking for a viable regional partner against China and sidelined previous human rights objections to kickstart free trade negotiations this week
Despite a wish by MEPs to pursue a bilateral deal with Taiwan business groups, the EU Commission warned that any embrace of Taipei could jeopardise already tense relations with China.
