After weeks of telegraphing signs towards a diplomatic rapprochement with China, or at least a thaw, Ursula von der Leyen made an abrupt volte face at the G7 summit with a broadside attack against Beijing's "pattern of dominance, dependency and blackmail" vis-à-vis its trading partners, including the European Union and the United States. "China has largely shown its unwillingness to live within the constraints of the rules-based international system," von der Leyen said in her intervention. "While others opened their market, China focused on undercutting intellectual property protections, massive subsidies with the aim to dominate global manufacturing and supply chains," she went on. "This is not market competition – it is distortion with intent."

The president of the European Commission declared, point blank, that the source of "the biggest collective problem" in the global trading system lay in China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. Beijing's entry into the WTO has been highly controversial as it opened international markets to a wave of low-cost exports. The admission is linked to the so-called "China shock" and a decline in manufacturing jobs in both the EU and the US. At the G7 summit, von der Leyen warned a "new China shock" was underway. It was a gloves-off denunciation that laid bare the state of mind of the Commission chief, her mounting displeasure and exasperation. In many ways, it was a return to the hawkish stance of her first mandate, during which she famously promoted the concept of "de-risking" to slash vulnerable dependencies that China could exploit. (Euronews)