The EU’s trade chief yesterday told Beijing that tough security laws and a more “politicized” business environment have left European companies struggling to understand their obligations, and questioning their future in China.
China’s refusal to condemn Russia for its war in Ukraine also poses a “reputational risk” for the world’s second-largest economy, EU Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis said in a speech at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.
He said transparency and openness were “a winning strategy in the long run,” at a time when trade tensions between the European bloc and China are mounting.
Photo: Reuters
“China is navigating a challenging transition from an investment-led economy to a broad-based economy,” he said. “For this it needs to remain open.”
Dombrovskis’s four-day trip, which began on Saturday, follows a report by the EU Chamber of Commerce that showed business confidence was at one of its lowest levels in years.
It also follows Brussels’ decision to launch a probe into Beijing’s electric vehicle subsidies.
The investigation could see the EU try to protect European automakers by imposing tariffs on vehicles that it believes are unfairly sold at lower prices.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has condemned the EU’s “naked protectionism,” and said that the measures “would have a negative impact on China-EU economic and trade relations.”
Dombrovskis yesterday insisted that China remained an attractive investment opportunity for European businesses.
“The EU and China both benefited immensely from being open to the world,” he said, adding that “European companies still want to invest here, but only if the conditions are right.”
Growing challenges for European business in China mean that “what many saw as a ‘win-win’ relationship before could become a ‘lose-lose’ dynamic in the coming years,” he said.
A new foreign relations law aimed at combating foreign sanctions, and an update to China’s tough anti-espionage regulations are of “great concern to our business community,” Dombrovskis said.
“Their ambiguity allows too much room for interpretation,” he added.
“This means European companies struggle to understand their compliance obligations: a factor that significantly decreases business confidence and deters new investments in China,” he said.
He said that China’s refusal to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine “is affecting the country’s image, not only with European consumers, but also businesses.”
“Territorial integrity has always been a key principle for China in international diplomacy. Russia’s war is a blatant breach of this principle,” Dombrovskis said.
“So it’s very difficult for us to understand China’s stance on Russia’s war against Ukraine, as it breaches China’s own fundamental principles,” he said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS