"What Europe really needs isn't more hustle-porn it's more aggressive funding," Husmus' co-founder Sarah Wernér told CNBC Make It on the work culture debate.

Mr. Putin has courted Mr. Xi for years, in more than 40 personal meetings, and has cemented a far deeper partnership with China since invading Ukraine. The two countries have a natural economic synergy, with Russia being one of the world’s largest energy producers and China the world’s largest energy consumer.

Seeking détente with China, therefore, is still a dangerous game for the EU. Instead, the EU must realize it has other cards to play, including forging more advantageous trade agreements elsewhere in the world and changing China’s calculus about supporting Russia.

Some European auto parts plants have suspended output and German carmaker BMW warned its supplier network was affected by shortages of rare earths, as concerns about the damage from China's restrictions on critical mineral exports deepen.

To try to convince merchants in China to refocus on European consumers, Shein, Temu and TikTok turned to the same tactics they used to build their markets in the US, spending heavily on advertising and subsidies to sellers and customers.

EU-China tensions escalated over diplomatic expulsions, suspected sabotage, stalled EV trade talks, and a tougher EU stance under Kaja Kallas.

China has signalled for more than 15 years that it was looking to weaponise areas of the global supply chain, a strategy modelled on longstanding American export controls Beijing views as aimed at stalling its rise.

"We are in a new era of asset vulnerability," said John Hemmings, the Council on Geostrategy's deputy director for geopolitics.

China EU relations. China-EU economic and trade relations have lately displayed a complex dynamic. While the EU has introduced some policy measures to restrict market access for C

China and France have agreed to resolve their trade disputes through dialogue, China's foreign ministry said on Friday, though there was no indication that agreement had been reached in talks on lifting Chinese levies on European brandy.