This week, economic friction between China and the U.S. continued to deepen. China's Ministry of Commerce issued its 2025 Report on WTO Compliance of the United States, accusing Washington of systematically violating WTO rules and undermining the multilateral trading system.

The Trump administration followed through on another set of "national security" tariffs, imposing 25% tariffs on imported trucks and truck parts, and 10% tariffs on imported buses. The tariffs are likely to impact Chinese exports as China is one of the top sources for truck parts.

And news reports indicate that the Trump administration is likely to begin a Section 301 investigation to evaluate China's compliance with its obligations under the 2020 Phase One trade deal. Here is our perspective on the likely motivations behind this move.

In the courts, Drone-maker DJI filed an appeal against a lower court ruling that found a U.S. Department of Defense designation of it as a "Chinese Military Company" to be permissible under a U.S. statute.

China-EU tensions also continued to rise. The European response to the recently announced expansion of Chinese rare earth export controls has been careful and measured, but it is clear that EU officials are concerned, and they are considering tough retaliatory measures.

Scholars at the European Council on Foreign Relations set out a number of ways the EU could escalate the ongoing trade conflict with China, in order to ultimately negotiate its way to a "landing zone."

And the EU adopted the 19th package of sanctions against Russia, making headlines for its inclusion of major Chinese energy and technology companies accused of supporting Moscow’s military effort in Ukraine. This is likely to create another source of tension between the two trading partners.

China and the Netherlands signaled a willingness to de-escalate after the Dutch government took action against Nexperia, a Dutch subsidiary of Chinese tech firm Wingtech. This stand-off highlights the deepening geopolitical tensions over critical sectors and the precarious position of global companies and supply chains caught between competing national security interests.

At the WTO, China filed its first ever WTO complaint against India, targeting subsidies in the battery and auto sectors.

Lastly, China's new competition law took effect this month. The law features provisions that provide more flexible and refined enforcement tailored to a new era of competition, expanding the government’s regulatory reach into corporate practices, and also including an "extraterritorial" aspect that could be of particular importance for multinational companies operating in China.