I met the commercial counsellors of all 27 EU countries to discuss about doing business in China, plus some other top business people in private meetings.
The overall feeling is of concern for the near future. Both the EU and the USA are raising their voices and getting impatient.
Local Chinese government officials I recently met do seem clueless and feel all is well. Agreed, they cannot read the real story in their local newspaper.
On the other hand some figures and comments explain a lot.
The EU now is a total of 27 countries with a population of close to 480 million and a combined GNP exceeding 10 trillion euros.
According to Mofcom:

EU is now China’s largest trading partner according: in 2006 total trade stood at US$ 272.29 billion. Trade surplus for China was US$ 91.7 billion and in the first ten months of 2007 it climbed to US$ 102.8 billion. In 2006, the value of sales by EU companies with investment in China was US$ 206.6 billion “helping offset the disparity in the trade figures”.

But here is another version, of the EU Delegation in Beijing, ambassador Serge Abou:

“The EU trade deficit with China could reach 150 to 160 billion euro in 2007. The EU deficit growth of 30 to 35 billion euro per year is unsustainable.”

The visit of EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in late 2007 brought more EU comments:

The EU deficit is increasing at a pace of 15 million euro per hour.
Beijing is now the largest source of manufactured imports for Europe.
EU exports to China are less than to Switzerland.
EU companies lose 20 billion euro per year due to China’s non-tariff barriers and regulatory discrimination.

For the USA, much the same. During the China – USA talks in December 2007 – US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez:

“Talks left the USA unfulfilled. Lingering concerns that China is increasingly using arcane regulations to keep out American products and wants to promote its own domestic economic “champions”. “In China there is an increasingly powerful domestic industry that is a strong lobby.” (IHT)”

Vice-Premier Wu Yi: “Some unharmonious notes” in the Sino-US trade ties this year: “It is marked by a sharp rise in the number of congressional legislation against China, evident politicization of economic and trade issues, strengthened control on exports to China and the purposeful exaggeration of China’s food and product safety.”
Then look at China Foreign Trade so far:

In the first eleven months of 2007: nearly US$ 2 trillion up 23.6% YoY.
Exports: US$ 1.1 trillion, up 26.1% – imports: US$ 865.5 billion, up 20.5% (no comments needed)
Trade surplus: US$ 238.1 billion up 52.2%

Now, that does not look so sustainable. I keep hearing from seasoned business people business is tough, less market access, rigged bidding, large-scale industrial IPR infringements. Yeah, yeah, read the wonderful success stories. Just talk frankly with people on the ground.
What the USA and EU need is not renminbi revaluation. They need reasonable market access, the consensus during a stiff drinking session in Centro, when the truth comes out. Not the one-way flow of goods and services. And the EU does want to export high-tech to China, businesses complain they can’t or don’t get paid (fairly).