Beijing threatened to launch trade probes against the European Union if the 27-member bloc pushes ahead with a proposal to curb imports of heavily subsidized foreign products.
Chinese authorities could initiate anti-discrimination and supply-chain security investigations into the EU's "overcapacity instrument," a social media account run by China's state broadcaster said Friday,citing unnamed sources.
If the EU advances the tool, China will take immediate action and deploy comprehensive countermeasures, it added.
The heating up of rhetoric comes ahead of European officials meeting for closely watched talks on Friday to discuss ramping up the bloc's trade defenses--a move widely seen as aimed at shielding critical industries from Chinese rivals.
European leaders hold the view that China's global industrial dominance is a result of decades of government subsidies and non-reciprocal market access. In a joint paper seen by Dow Jones Newswires foreshadowing the talks, five EU member states including France, Spain and the Netherlands called for the bloc's executive arm to launch more probes into potentially unfair trading practices, be proactive when disputing alleged breaches at the World Trade Organization, amend existing rules to prevent businesses from circumventing them, and allocate more resources to its trade policy unit to tackle a surge in investigations into dumping and subsidies.
