China is highly dependent on the EU and the US for trade. The EU is the biggest trading bloc in the world. The EU has a lot of leverage.

The problem is that China trivially buys off a single member state to nix things like this from happening, as the EU must agree unanimously on these matters.

> The EU is the biggest trading bloc in the world.

That recently changed: https://www.dw.com/en/asia-pacific-nations-sign-worlds-bigge...

> China is highly dependent on the EU and the US for trade

This is double-edged sword - EU and US are dependent on the imported goods. if the trade between China and the rest of the world stopped China would end up with abundance, and EU would be in serious trouble, not being able to buy basic things they need. Always better to have some real stuff than virtual money.

> > The EU is the biggest trading bloc in the world. > That recently changed:

Both of those are by population and not by GDP.

GDP measures buying/negotiating power. ASEAN is _tiny_.

The US is still top of the heap.

You must be thinking about AESAN countries alone, which have about $3 trillion GDP, but this free trade agreement also includes China ($13.6T), Japan ($5T) and Australia ($1.4T), placing it ahead of both USA ($20T) and EU ($15.6T)

That was my point - that China can just focus on trading with other Asian countries and be well. Especially if they someday manage to add India ($2.7T) to the mix.

The EU can at the very least stop purchasing or slap tariffs on pollution heavy items.