China to the rescue

"Euro crisis: when China meddles,” la Tribuneheadlines a recap of Chinese vice-premier Wang Qishan’s statements at a Sino-European economic mini-summit on 21 December. He confirmed that Beijing would help some EU member countries fight the sovereign debt crisis, stressing that is in the “fundamental interest of China and the EU to reinforce their cooperation”. "Beijing has been watching with concern the serial saga of the European councils trying since the beginning of the year to calm the markets,” [observes La Tribune](http://observes La Tribune). That concern is not wholly disinterested, “seeing as the EU is China’s premier trading partner: in 2009, for every euro the Chinese earned on exports to Europe, European companies made €1.40 in China.”