This week Joe Biden made good on his campaign promise to work more with allies to pressure China, coordinating with U.S. partners to impose sanctions over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Beijing’s response: Hit back at the allies as hard as possible.
China wasted no time Monday night immediately retaliating with reciprocal sanctions against European Union officials while summoning the bloc’s ambassador to China. Those hit included politicians in a range of countries, one of the main EU bodies formulating foreign policy and Europe’s largest research institute focused on China.