Everything in EU is overpriced and worse than things coming from outside the EU, and that is by design. EU basically has no choice but to become more dystopian and adopt policies similar to the USSR to keep itself viable. This includes extreme trade barriers (with exceptions for China, because of course) and extreme restrictions on speech.
Europe is like some rich kid who thinks he somehow has merit of his own, instead of just being well-off because his parents were well-off. Basically Europe is the Greta Thunberg of continents.
> Everything in EU is overpriced and worse than things coming from outside the EU, and that is by design
If nothing else, Airbus says hello and laughs in your face. Throw in Spotify and IKEA, the majority of the world's luxury sector, a decent portion of the world's biggest car manufacturers, ASML, and you're just being silly.
As someone who lives in Europe and buys things in Europe every single day, I know that practically everything except groceries comes from China. But sure, whenever I buy a plate from IKEA it comes from Turkey and not China.
But I guess if I were a rich person who mostly bought luxury goods, they would come from France. I guess I'm the problem. If only my tax money stayed with me instead of being funnelled to useless aristocrats, then maybe I could afford more luxury goods from France.
Everyone in the world buys things made in China everyday, it's the largest manufacturing country in the world, that's a non-sequitur.
At the same time there are plenty of everyday items still made in the EU, and not necessarily luxury goods. My pets' leashes are made in Germany, my kitchen knives are made in Germany, my pots and pans are made in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. My drinking glasses are made in France, and Italy, my glass storage containers are made in France; lots of my clothing are made in Portugal, my music gear is made in Germany, Spain, Estonia, and Poland.
It's up to you to choose items made in the EU and not China though.
Also think about non-consumer items and expensive items such as cars.
Even with consumer items the keyboard I am typing this on says "made in the Czech Republic" on the bottom. I definitely have lots of things made in Germany, Taiwan, France, the US, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam etc.
People in the UK keep saying "we do not make anything anymore" but in fact lots of things, cars (often foreign brands, but still made here) and car parts, medicines, chemical, medical equipment, jet engines, satellites..... those are just off the top of my head.
I didn't mention non-consumer items because OP was complaining about only buying items "made in China".
For non-consumer items there's a whole laundry list of high-tech stuff where Europe has a big presence: high-end chemical reactors, high-precision machinery, chip manufacturing machines (not only ASML but also probe cards, vacuum valves/pumps), off-shore wind turbines (including HV submarine lines for transmission), aseptic packaging for food (Tetra Pak, SIG), and lots more.
People only look at the brands they recognise without understanding there's a whole lots of standing-on-the-shoulders-of-giants going on in the supply chain so Apple can manufacture an iPhone in China using technology from all across the globe, a lot of it from Europe. That laser cutter doing precision metalwork on phones, or cars? Probably German or Swiss...
It's not flashy but there's actually very important technology that is developed, and made in Europe.
Selling medicines, and biotech is quite a productive industry where European companies are leaders. The same for high-precision machinery used by the "actual productive industries" that depend on European machines to be able to even have factories with assembly lines, chemical reactors, etc.
It's almost like people taking these jabs don't understand comparative advantages, and are also blind to the economical output of Europe in general...
On paper the EU may have strong trade barriers with China, but in practice this just does not bear out. Europe has stronger trade barriers within itself than with China.
The EU demands that goods made in Poland conforms to some standards, but also that the manufacturers in Poland conform to some standards. For goods from China they in theory demand the same standards, but in practice these standards are not strictly enforced for goods from China (see AliExpress, Temu, Shein, etc), and there are no regulation on the manufacturers. Chinese manufacturers use slave labour, they pollute, they don't give their employees similar rights and benefits.
It's also way easier and cheaper for most Europeans to buy something from China than it is to buy something from within Europe, even though the actual selling price out of the factory is not that much higher for things manufactured in Europe. I pay the same "tariffs" if I buy from Sweden or AliExpress.
It is a bit hypocritical of the EU to push tariffs against the EU citizens, forcing higher prices. Tariffs can sometimes make sense, such as for an emerging industry, but counter-tariffs are often the outcome and we here are punished by higher prices. If the EU wants to be relevant, they also need to produce at a lower price; China is conquering markets because it simply is more competitive now.
China has better quality manufacturing at a cheaper price than EU and China. They aren't pushing out junk, it's well engineered, well, manufactured good which are almost impossible to produce at all in Europe never mind produce at a cheaper price, but still Europe allows these things to be imported with less strict barriers than they have against goods produced in European countries themselves.
Same, they push tariffs it seems mostly to protect automotive industry from competition, the industry which has grown bloated and rent-seeking over the years.
Even more so when you take build quality and support quality in the equation.
Europe is like some rich kid who thinks he somehow has merit of his own, instead of just being well-off because his parents were well-off. Basically Europe is the Greta Thunberg of continents.