Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, appearing at a news conference with EU head Tusk and Juncker, declared the agreements reached at the summit “something good for China’s reform and opening-up endeavors, and good for European unity and prosperity.”  The big loser … the US and Trump after the US President urged EU leaders not to support a joint statement with China, saying there has not been sufficient cooperation from the Chinese side.

The Global Times, a Chinese mouthpiece. cast doubt on Trump’s suggestion that he would reach a deal to end his trade war with China within four weeks.  The editorial called Trump’s prediction “just an uncertain timetable” and it warned that any effort to force through a deal could have serious negative consequences,

Politico reported that “the foremost imperative for Brussels and Beijing was to showcase the failure of Trump’s belligerence — his slapping of unilateral tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods and his threats of punitive levies against EU-made automobiles — in achieving real gains for the U.S. vis-à-vis the world’s biggest trading powers.” For the EU, it was an illustration that a bloc known for soft power could take a harder line, and also that its commitment to dialogue is a source of strength not weakness. It was also a chance to show that China is more than willing to deal with the EU collectively.  For China, it was an opportunity to portray itself as compromising and reasonable — essentially a preemptive move against any suggestion by Trump that failure to reach a deal was the result of Chinese intransigence.

Trump seemed to be the protectionist elephant in the room throughout the EU’s negotiation process with the Chinese, according to EU officials who said that at numerous points, they sensed China was stalling on various issues, awaiting the outcome of their simultaneous talks with Washington.

The U.S. president, by virtue of his heavy tariffs, has more muscle and may yet extract more in the way of hard concessions from China than the EU, which mainly won more in political commitments. But in a twist, it was the EU that clinched its symbolic victory first, with Trump ironically providing extra incentive for Beijing to reach a deal with the Europeans.

The U.S. way was also on display in Brussels Tuesday as the American ambassador to the EU met with officials from the European Parliament and again slammed the EU over its trade dispute with Washington.