Alice Han

Okay, so my prediction is more on the back of French President Emmanuel Macron's recent trip to China, which felt very Gaullist.

You know, if you're a student of history and the 60s, you'll understand why.

The fandom that he received in China was pretty incredible.

But I think it's paintball.

over a relationship that is deteriorating between Europe and China.

Europe runs a huge deficit with China to the tune of $350 billion in 2024.

I could see the Chinese offer olive branches, so to speak.

There were Airbus officials there.

Now, in the past, they've had Airbus officials in previous trade deals.

But I think that the Chinese could potentially offer the olive branch of buying more Airbus planes.

I could see them dropping certain investigations into, say, European pork, again, to help the relationship.

They've certainly started to do this French cognac.

But on the flip side, I sense in Europe, and I want to get your quick take on this too, my prediction in the European context is that we're going to see a lot more in the form of trade investigations, tariffs and non-tariff barriers against Chinese goods.

and a more concerted effort to de-risk from China.

I think the critical minerals part is a big part of this as well.

So I think we're going to have a two-pronged nature to this relationship.

On the one hand, China trying to make nice, and on the other hand, the Europeans on a totally different planet where they're very, very concerned about the dependency on China.

Definitely watch this space.

And I know you're heading to Europe, so we'll definitely touch base next week.

All right, that's all for this episode.