Leveraging China's Economic Fragility for European Resilience (iss.europa.eu)

• Internal economic decline is driving China's increasingly aggressive diplomacy.
• China's power relies on strategic chokepoints and industrial overcapacity.
• The EU requires a more proactive, unified strategy to manage economic risk.

"China's outward projection of power masks structural internal weaknesses, including an aging population, property sector debt, and stalled growth. As Beijing shifts toward defensive autarky and coercive economic statecraft, the EU must move beyond passive observation. This analysis argues that Europe should exploit these vulnerabilities by accelerating de-risking strategies, securing critical supply chains, and strengthening internal industrial assets to counter Chinese technological lock-in and systemic dependencies."