It's definitely true for Europe being absolutely spineless when push comes to shove.

The EU couldn't even put pressure on Erdogan let alone on Xi.

China has been buying influence here for years, especially through the poorer countries that were alienated by the strict austerity measures imposed by the bigger powers.

The nature of the EU politics where a single country has the power to veto the rest is a massive loophole that China is happily exploiting.

The fact that every EU country has different interests and agendas is a huge problem that results to the union never aligning on anything critical.

Just look how the refugee crisis was handled. Affected countries were crying for help and the others were like "sucks for you bro".