EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has become increasingly stern over China's trade policy, which he says is threatening to result in a protectionist backlash.

“Protectionist voices will be raised, and if the public perception is that China is closed to our trade while benefiting from our openness then they will be impossible to silence,” he warned recently.

The EU is China's biggest trade partner, and is an important market for an array of consumer goods from footwear to apparel.

Earlier this year, the EU imposed antidumping duties on leather shoes from both China and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, China's huge and growing trade surplus is making matters worse. The country's June trade surplus hit a whopping $14.5 billion, which is believed to be the largest trade surplus any country has ever recorded. In May, China reported a record $13 billion surplus.

Economists say the surplus will increase pressure on the Chinese government to allow the yuan to appreciate against the dollar and other currencies as a way of softening the trade gaps.

Some analysts are also warning that China's growing trade dominance continues to create possibly unsustainable imbalances in the global economy, placing too many surpluses in the hand of China while saddling the United States with too much of the world's debt.

So far this year, China's surplus with the rest of the world has risen to about $61.5 billion, up 55 percent from a year earlier, and is easily on pace to surpass last year's record $102 billion.

“This is sure to increase the trade war between the U.S., Europe and China,” says Chen Jianan, a professor of economics at Fudan University.