A World Trade Organisation panel ruled Tuesday that Trump administration tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods are illegal, vindicating Beijing even if the United States has all but incapacitated the WTO’s ability to hand down a final, binding verdict.

The Chinese government has expressed its support for a lawsuit against the Trump administration, which challenges his executive order to sell or spin-off TikTok’s operations on US soil. Beijing supports the effort by Chinese companies to use legal means to defend their rights and interests in the US, including the lawsuit by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian told journalists on Monday.

Washington said Wednesday it would hold off on its threat to impose higher tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of EU goods in its long-running dispute over subsidies to European aircraft maker Airbus, AFP and Reuters report.

China ordered the United States to close its consulate in the city of Chengdu on Friday, responding to a US demand this week that China close its Houston consulate, as relations between the world’s two largest economies deteriorate.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took fresh aim at China on Thursday and said Washington and its allies must use "more creative and assertive ways" to press the Chinese Communist Party to change its ways, calling it the "mission of our time."

The United States said Wednesday that it has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston “to protect American intellectual property” and the private information of Americans.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday the United States wants to build a global coalition to counter China as he accused Beijing of exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to further its own interests.

Pristina re-launched on Sunday a trade war with Belgrade by announcing a ban on all imports from Serbia that are not stamped “for the Republic of Kosovo”, AFP reported. The 100-percent tariff on Serbian imports, imposed in 2018 to protest Belgrade’s campaign to undermine global recognition of the former Serbian province, was only abolished on 1 April. The measure lasted mere two months.

The United States said on Friday it would add 33 Chinese firms and institutions to an economic blacklist for helping Beijing spy on its minority Uighur population or because of ties to weapons of mass destruction and China’s military. The actions follow the same blueprint used by Washington in its attempt to limit the influence of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for what it says are national security reasons.

If handling the coronavirus crisis was not enough for Europeans to be getting on with, another tremendous challenge awaits: the threat of economic coercion from both the US and China, as competition between the two great powers escalates. Europe has recently strengthened its instruments of control over strategic investments coming from outside the EU, but it will now also need to build its resilience to direct threats and collateral effects from the US-China rivalry.