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China warns the EU.

 

China
Europe should reject Wash­ing­ton’s demands to curb trade with Beijing, a senior Chinese dip­lo­mat has warned, say­ing that any coun­try that shred­ded busi­ness ties with his nation would do so «at their peril».

Fu Cong, China’s EU ambas­sador, said the US would «stop at noth­ing» to dis­rupt nor­mal ties between the bloc and China, adding that a «pro­tec­tion­ist tend­ency» was on the rise in Europe.

«Who in their right mind would aban­don such a thriv­ing mar­ket as big as China?» Fu told the Fin­an­cial Times, warn­ing politi­cians not to under­mine pos­it­ive busi­ness sen­ti­ment towards China. «It will only be at their peril».

«We do hope that the European gov­ern­ments and the European politi­cians can see where their interests lie and then res­ist the unwar­ran­ted pres­sure from the US,» Fu said.

Refer­ring to the Neth­er­lands, he added: «They need to be mind­ful of the fact that China can­not just sit there and see its interests being trampled like this without tak­ing any actions in response».

Fu was speak­ing as the European Com­mis­sion pres­id­ent vowed to tighten scru­tiny of trade and invest­ment flows in sens­it­ive areas such as quantum com­put­ing and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence.

Brus­sels must develop «new defens­ive tools» as it updates its secur­ity policies in the face of an increas­ingly assert­ive China, Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech.

Von der Leyen is seek­ing to steer a dis­tinct line from the US, stress­ing her goal is not to «decouple» from China but to «de-risk».

China’s busi­ness ties with some European coun­tries remain strong. For example, Ger­man com­pan­ies inves­ted a record €11.5bn in China last year, accord­ing to a paper pub­lished this week by Ger­man think­tank Insti­tut der deutschen Wirtschaft.

Recent EU pro­pos­als to reduce depend­ence on Chinese imports include improv­ing sup­plies of crit­ical raw mater­i­als and boost­ing domestic pro­duc­tion of green tech­no­logy. New trade defence tools also empower the EU to retali­ate against eco­nomic intim­id­a­tion and curb access for Chinese state-sub­sid­ised pro­du­cers using forced labour.

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  1. Sam31 March 2023 at 09:29

    The EU needs to watch out for its own interests. People living in the EU need both products from the US and products from China. Cutting ties with any of them would be a big mistake. It's good to find alternatives to China but at the moment the EU still needs to do a lot of business with them.

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    1. Veronica31 March 2023 at 09:55

      Alternatives should be found but it takes time. The big problem is the areas where the EU is dependent on China for things. Those areas need to be addressed first so that in 5 or 10 years, things are much different.

      Delete
  2. Nicholas31 March 2023 at 10:04

    Economic intimidation shouldn't be an issue for the EU in the next few years as they go for other options besides China. It's clear China can and surely will use this tactic and others in the future, when it suits its interests. You can rely on a dictatorial country for important products. Also there are many products that are of conscionable quality from China and alternatives should be found quickly.

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