Europe is in a lot of trouble. The Europeans know this; the Americans know this; the entire world knows this. But it seems theres not much anyone can do to alleviate Europe from its own financial sinkhole. On second thought, somebody might.

Hu Jintao, the president of China, landed in Vienna on October 31st to begin a 3 day visit of the central European country before heading off to France for the next G20 summit. This is only the second time a Chinese leader has visited Austria, and Hu’s second trip to Europe since earlier this year. In addition to sight-seeing, Hu is presented with a much tougher task: increase China’s involvement in the Europe and provide much needed cash to volatile Euro-zone.

How likely is China to bail Europe out? Very likely. Despite annoucing earlier that Europe should still play a key role in solving its own crisis, China would still like to help out its second-largest trading partner. Over the past few years Beijing has tried hard to establish an active presence in Europe, from buying Airbus to importing Chanel No. 5. In turn, China is also Europe’s largest trading partner, who imports hundreds of billionth worth annually. An European demise is no goood news to anyone, and certainly even more so to the Chinese.

Images: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/creating-opportunities/bilateral-relations/countries/china/, and http://asiabizz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/eu-china-trade.jpg, in order of precedence.