At present, the EU’s economic and trade relations with China have shown a distinct trend of division: on the one hand, the EU continues to promote its“De-risking” argument towards China, and plans to introduce new tools to restrict trade with China; on the other hand, a large number of European enterprises have always adhered to the Chinese market and continued to expand their business layout in China. In response to this contradictory phenomenon on the European side, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press conference on the 4th that more and more European companies are choosing to deepen their involvement in China and expand their business in China, this in itself is the most powerful response to the so-called“De-risking”. Economic and trade cooperation between China and EU is rooted in common interests and is in essence the result of the joint action of comparative advantage and market competition. Complementary advantages are not risks, and interests integration is not a threat.
On May 29 local time, the European Commission held a plenary session to discuss relations with China, Radio France Internationale reported. After the meeting, the European Commission made clear that its overall strategy towards China is still to“Eliminate risks and not decouple”. It acknowledged that China is a vital partner of the EU and will continue to maintain communication, contact and dialogue with China. However, the commission also declared that the current trade and investment relationship between China and the EU was unsustainable. Some media forecast that the European Union may in mid-june, with the help of the G7 summit and the EU Summer Summit Opportunity, officially launched a new tool to restrict trade with China.
In response to the above developments in the European Commission, “If the EU insists on unilaterally introducing new trade tools and imposing discriminatory restrictions, China will resolutely counter them and take effective measures to safeguard its own interests,” the ministry said
It is also reported that the European Union proposed the“European technology sovereignty plan” on the 3rd of this month to reduce Europe’s dependence on foreign technology, to boost its competitiveness in areas such as artificial intelligence, Semiconductors, cloud computing and open source software. Some media analysts said the move was aimed at reducing the EU’s dependence on US and Chinese tech giants.
Meanwhile, “De-risking” does not appear to be the practical option for European companies, according to a new survey by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. According to CNBC, in a survey released by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China in late May, nearly one-third of European companies surveyed said they were further deepening localized production in China, thirty-seven percent said they had not changed their supply chain strategy in the past two years. In addition, 68% of respondents chose to maintain or expand their presence in China.
Yan Ci, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said, “Most industries today are facing competitors relying on Chinese supply chains. To remain competitive in terms of price and quality, integrating into the Chinese supply chain has become an inevitable choice.”
Mao ning further said in answering media questions on the 4th that over the past 50 years, the annual trade volume between China and the EU has increased by more than 300 times, and the two-way investment stock is close to 260 billion US dollars, it fully demonstrates that china-eu cooperation enjoys strong momentum and broad prospects. At the same time, she stressed that trade protectionism goes against the law of the economy and hurts no one but oneself. It is hoped that the EU will view china-eu Economic and trade relations objectively and rationally, and work with China to reduce the list of issues and make the cooperation pie bigger so as to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.