China and EU commit to their common duty

Now that the US president has openly labeled the European Union "a foe" of his country, like he has Russia and China, it is difficult to predict how far he is willing to go in pursuit of his "America First" agenda.

With the flames of trade friction spreading from the Americas to Asia and now to Europe, it is increasingly explicit that the US president does not mind upending the global trade order in his crusade for US preeminence. And this lends special significance to the consensus reached by Chinese and European Union leaders in Beijing on Monday that they will work together to preserve multilateralism and free trade.

Having been engulfed by the last century's two devastating world wars, European nations are justified in worrying that the trade confrontation initiated by the Donald Trump administration has the potential to mutate into violent "conflict and chaos".