The Chinese government said Wednesday that it would investigate whether the European Union’s probes into Chinese companies constitute “trade barriers.”

China’s Commerce Ministry has announced it will launch an investigation into whether unfair trade practices were adopted by the European Union in its probe of Chinese companies

China will examine whether European Union investigations of Chinese enterprises amounted to "trade barriers," its commerce ministry said on Wednesday.

T he Chinese government has said it is launching an investigation into allegations that fuel tankers have been used to transport cooking oil after carrying toxic chemicals without being cleaned properly between loads. The controversy has spread online as social media users express concerns about potential food contamination.

Public outrage is mounting in China over allegations that a major state-owned food company has been cutting costs by using the same tankers to carry fuel and cooking oil – without cleaning them in between.

Worries over food quality continue to rattle both consumers and officials in China, a country that’s been scarred by a series of food-safety scandals over the years.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and threatens to subjugate it with military force if Taipei refuses to submit to Beijing’s control indefinitely. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has in recent years replaced his predecessor’s more patient approach with a campaign of political, economic and military pressure aimed at coercing Taiwan.

The United States’ new top envoy to Taiwan has promised Washington will help the self-ruled island defend itself as China ramps up its military threats against Taipei

The Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the evacuation of the defeated Nationalists to Taiwan. However, it may be more accurate to think of that as the end of the second phase of an ongoing century-long conflict (the first began in the 1920s).

China's coast guard said on humanitarian grounds it had "allowed" the Philippines to evacuate a person who had fallen ill on a rusting warship beached on the Second Thomas Shoal located in waters claimed by both countries.

The Philippines said it successfully evacuated a sick Navy personnel from its outpost in the South China Sea days ago despite attempts by Chinese ships to block the mission.

China ’s coast guard claimed it “allowed” the Philippines to evacuate an ill soldier from a rusting warship on the contested Second Thomas Shoal on humanitarian grounds. However, the Philippine coast guard called this claim “ridiculous” and accused China of illegal vessel deployment in their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).