Imposing sanctions and engaging in trade wars does not align with China's interests, nor with the EU's interests, a Chinese observer said on Sunday, describing the complexity of China-EU relations like that of a "wrangling married couple."
Speaking at an event in Shanghai, EU Ambassador to China Jorge Toledo said that "The EU does not want a trade war with Beijing but five years of talks have yielded no real progress," adding that there is increasing concern over Chinese market access for European medical devices, according to Reuters.
Toledo made the remarks at the 30th anniversary celebration of the China Europe International Business School. Toledo said talks with European medical device makers had shown they were being discriminated against in Chinese public procurement. "We don't want a trade war. We just want transparency. We want a level playing field," Reuters cited Toledo as saying.
Trade frictions between the bloc and China have intensified over the past year after the EU launched an investigation into Chinese-made imports of electric vehicles (EVs) that prompted Beijing to launch probes into Europe's pork and dairy industries and curb brandy imports, Reuters reported.
Zhao Junjie, senior research fellow at the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday that the overall characteristic of China-EU relations in the post-pandemic era is the emergence of trade protectionism, while at the same time, there is positive momentum in economic and trade cooperation, technological collaboration, cultural exchanges and educational partnerships. These elements consistently act as stabilizers or catalysts for bilateral progress.
"The China-EU relationship is much like a married couple wrangling with each other. Both recognize they should work out their issues together, and no matter who wants to break up, both will suffer significant losses," Zhao said.
The European Commission recently concluded its anti-subsidy investigation by imposing definitive countervailing duties on imports of battery electric vehicles (EVs) from China for a period of five years.
As Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won the 2024 US presidential election, the EU will need to address the short- or long-term challenges following Trump's reelection, Christian Kern, former Chancellor of Austria said at an event on Friday in Beijing. The foremost is to solve energy-related issues, an area where the EU is able to cooperate with China, Kern said. Kern believes that China can rapidly scale industries, such as new energy vehicle batteries and wind power, while Europe is at a relatively lagging position.
Both Zhao and Yan told the Global Times that China and the EU should prevent the EU's strategic autonomy from moving toward confrontation with China, and called for more open communication between China and the EU.
Yan noted that the EU needs to recognize that the retaliatory measures China has taken are not solely focused on tariffs for EVs. There are concerns about potential tariff increases in other sectors such as wind turbines, solar energy, medical equipment and more, he said.
Several European leaders have visited China recently. "These visits are essential. Open communication and dialogue can help avoid misjudgments," Yan noted.
Zhao emphasized that "China opposes unreasonable demands and will fight when necessary. However, countermeasures should be differentiated and not applied uniformly."
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Friday jointly met with representatives attending the China-Italy Cultural Cooperation Mechanism Conference and the Dialogue between Chinese and Italian University Presidents in Beijing.
China congratulated Donald Trump on being elected as president of the United States, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The spokesperson made the remarks in response to a query that the U.S. presidential election results are out and Republican candidate Donald Trump has won the election.
"We respect the choice of the American people and congratulate Mr. Trump on being elected as president of the United States," said the spokesperson.
Foreign espionage and intelligence agencies have escalating efforts to infiltrate China's data sector, aiming to steal critical data and compromise national security in recent years. The public is urged to stay vigilant, protecting both critical national and personal data in their work and life and be alert to foreign intelligence agencies stealing our country's core sensitive data, China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) said on Tuesday.
Due to the intangible and hard-to-trace nature of data, and the diversity of data owners and the complexity of processing activities, there are significant risks across collection, transmission, storage, usage, deletion, and destruction stages, including data leaks, data tampering, data misuse, unauthorized transmission, illegal access, and abnormal traffic.
The MSS reminds the public that safeguarding data security is a comprehensive effort necessitating broad public involvement.
The general public should remain vigilant in protecting important national data and sensitive personal data in their work and life, and be alert to foreign intelligence agencies stealing our country's core sensitive data, to collectively fortify national data security, the MSS said.
Supported by solid data security measures, China’s digital technologies like digital consumption, smart manufacturing, and 5G continue to advance, fueling growth in the digital economy.
According to statistics, China's digital economy grew from 11.2 trillion yuan ($1.57 trillion) in 2012 to 53.9 trillion yuan by 2023. The growth of the digital economy accounted for 66.45% of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, significantly bolstering new productive forces, the MSS noted.
China on Monday unveiled new birth support policy measures to promote the building of a birth-friendly society. An expert told the Global Times that these measures are comprehensive and could potentially improve China's current fertility rate, but additional efforts are still needed.
A directive from the General Office of China's State Council details 13 targeted measures on enhancing childbirth support services, expanding child-care systems, fostering a birth-friendly social atmosphere, and strengthening support in education, housing and employment, according to the Xinhua News Agency on Monday.
The directive includes a range of measures for birth support across four key areas, according to the directive. The first is to enhance support for fertility services by guiding eligible localities to include maternity insurance for flexible employment workers, migrant workers, and individuals in new forms of employment who participate in basic medical insurance.
Measures also include improving the maternity leave system to ensure the implementation of legally mandated leave periods, including maternity leave, paternity leave, and parental leave.
It also suggests establishing a maternity subsidy system and strengthen reproductive medical services by advising regions to include appropriate pain relief methods during childbirth and assisted reproductive technology projects within the scope of medical insurance reimbursement.
The second area focuses on strengthening the child-rearing service system, with measures including improving the quality of pediatric medical services and ensuring that eligible children's medications are promptly covered by medical insurance. It also involves increasing the supply of inclusive childcare services and improving supportive policies for inclusive childcare.
The third is to strengthen support measures in education, housing and employment, including supporting primary and secondary schools to actively carry out after-school services, and encouraging localities to introduce specific measures for families with multiple children attending the same school.
The measures also include strengthening housing support policies and encouraging eligible localities to increase support for families with multiple children when it comes to purchasing houses. It also encourages companies to allow employers to adopt flexible working hours and remote work arrangements based on actual conditions, creating a family-friendly work environment.
Besides these, measures involve actively promoting a new culture of marriage and childbirth, strongly advocating positive views on marriage, parenthood, and family. It also includes enhancing social awareness campaigns and strengthening education on national population conditions and policies by integrating relevant content into primary and secondary schools, as well as undergraduate programs.
He Yafu, an independent demographer, told the Global Times on Monday that the proposed measures are comprehensive and could potentially enhance China's current fertility rate. He pointed out that several local governments had introduced birth subsidy policies, but these subsidies are generally inadequate to raise the fertility rate. Therefore he emphasized the need for support from the central government, which has more financial resources to boost fertility rate.
Besides, China has recently officially launched a fresh round of population and family development survey aimed at understanding family dynamics and reproductive behaviors, ultimately providing data to enhance fertility support policies.
Chinese officials, business organizations and carmakers on Wednesday fiercely criticized the EU's decision to impose so-called countervailing tariffs on imports of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), urging the bloc to advance talks to reach a mutually acceptable solution as soon as possible to avert escalating trade friction.
They also vowed to take all necessary measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies. Significantly, on Wednesday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said it has filed a complaint at the WTO against the EU's move, while a Chinese carmaker said it plans to file suit at the Court of Justice of the EU.
While both sides remained open to continuing negotiations, Chinese experts said that the EU has shown a lack of sufficient sincerity, as it insists on its imposing hefty tariffs against Chinese EV makers and seeks to conduct separate negotiations with individual firms in order to take firms down one by one, experts noted.
Unacceptable move
In a press release on Tuesday, the European Commission (EC), the executive branch of the EU, said that it has concluded its anti-subsidy investigation by imposing definitive countervailing duties on imports of EVs from China for a period of five years.
The press release said that the so-called countervailing duties on Chinese EVs, ranging from 17 percent to 35.3 percent, would enter into force on the day following the publication in the Official Journal, meaning that they took effect on Wednesday.
The move prompted harsh criticism from China. In a statement on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for MOFCOM said that China "does not agree nor accept" the definitive ruling and has filed suit under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.
"China will continue to take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," the MOFCOM spokesperson said, while calling out the EU for engaging in unfair and protectionist actions under the guise of "fair competition."
At a regular press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, criticized the EU's move as "pure protectionism detrimental to China-EU industrial and supply chain cooperation, to European consumers, and to EU's green transition and global climate response."
The response from the Chinese business community was swift and harsh. In a statement sent to the Global Times on Wednesday, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME), which is representing the Chinese EV industry in the case, said the EC's definitive ruling is unfair, unreasonable and unobjective, and seriously violates the relevant anti-subsidy regulations of the WTO as well as the EU itself.
"As the defense party in this investigation, the CCCME will continue to lead companies to do well in the price commitment negotiations, and we will effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese EV industry and companies through various legal means," the statement said.
The China Association of Automobile Manufactures on Wednesday also slammed the EU's protectionist action and said that it firmly upholds and supports the Chinese government's WTO suit against the EU to protect Chinese firms' legitimate rights and interests.
Some Chinese EV makers are already considering legal action against the EC's move. In a statement to the Global Times on Wednesday, SAIC Motor, which faces the highest tariff rate of 35.3 percent, said it plans to take necessary legal action to bring its case to the EU Court of Justice to safeguard its legitimate right and interests.
Earlier on Wednesday, the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU said that the EU's "unjustified" move against Chinese EVs can "neither strengthen the EU's EV manufacturing resilience, nor foster innovation or job creation," according to a statement to it sent to the Global Times.
Yang Erlin, chairman of the Finnish Chinese Business Council and CEO of the Finland-China Development and Exchange Center, told the Global Times on Wednesday that while some Finnish businesses support the EU's move, others are focused on the impact of the policy on the Finnish economy, industry competitiveness and commercial ties with China.
Yang noted that the business community is worried that if the tariffs dampen China's interests in the European market, it may dampen the prospects for cooperation in areas such as green technology and green energy and may have an adverse impact on some Finnish companies hoping to expand into the Chinese market.
He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, said that in terms of the timing, the EC's announcement on Tuesday is in line with its own procedures; however, the EC's determination about subsidies is unacceptable.
"We can engage the EU side under the WTO mechanism, and if the WTO finds the EU in violation, the EU will be compelled to rectify its wrong practices," He told the Global Times on Wednesday, while adding that there is still room for the two sides to resolve the dispute through consultation.
Continuing talks
Notably, both sides on Wednesday indicated that consultations will continue. The headline of the EC's press release on Tuesday stated that "discussions on price undertakings continue."
"In parallel, the EU and China continue to work toward finding alternative, WTO-compatible solutions that would be effective in addressing the problems identified by the investigation," it said.
In the statement on Wednesday, the MOFCOM spokesperson said the Chinese side had noted the EU's comments about continuing price commitment talks with China, and stressed that China has persisted in addressing the trade dispute through dialogue and consultation.
The spokesperson said that the technical teams of the two sides are conducting a new phase of consultation. "It is hoped that the EU side will jointly advance the talks in a constructive manner and under 'pragmatic and balanced' principles, address each other's core concerns, and reach a mutually acceptable solution as soon as possible, so as to avoid escalating trade frictions," the spokesperson said.
Experts said that while the EC has indicated its willingness to continue negotiations with China, it has not shown sufficient sincerity.
"The EU has agreed to conduct consultations based on the direction of price commitment offers made by China, but some of the EU's demands are unacceptable," said He, noting the EC's decision to apply different tariff rates against different carmakers. "Clearly, the EU lacks sincerity in the negotiations."
While the Chinese side has repeatedly urged the EU to refrain from conducting separate negotiations with individual carmakers and focus on negotiations led by the CCCME, the EU appears to be continuing its strategy, stating in the press release on Tuesday that it remains open to negotiations with individual exporters.
"By conducting separate negotiations with individual firms, the EU is seeking to take the companies down one by one," Wang Yiwei, a professor at the School of International Relations at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Wang said that the EC is well aware that the EU is falling far behind in EV development and is seeking to force Chinese companies to move some of their production to the EU, share their technologies, and relocate their supply chains.
"The EC is not just after tariffs. It wants Chinese companies' supply chains, technologies and localized operations," Wang said, stressing that the WTO rules are on China's side, as China moves to safeguard its rights and interests.
