Ambassador Liu Xiaoming: Where does the strong endogenous driving force of China Europe economic and trade cooperation come from? China Europe Economic and Trade Cooperation | Liu Xiaoming

The current world situation is turbulent and unstable, with an unstable global economic recovery momentum. Old contradictions and new risks are intertwined and stacked, and factors of uncertainty and instability are significantly increasing.The more complex and severe the situation is, the more we need to unite as one and work together. It is gratifying that as the main participants in building an open world economy, China and Europe have seen strong growth in economic and trade cooperation against the trend, effectively countering those who advocate for "decoupling and chain breaking" and praise the prospects of cooperation between the two sides. This is not only a result of overcoming numerous difficulties for entrepreneurs from China and Europe, but also highlights the strong endogenous driving force, resilience, and enormous advantages of China Europe economic and trade cooperation, injecting more certainty into the uncertain world economy.

Where does the strong endogenous driving force of China Europe economic and trade cooperation come from? I think it mainly comes from the political will of both sides to cooperate. Good political will is the foundation and guarantee for China Europe to carry out exchanges and cooperation. Despite the differences between China and Europe, both sides believe that cooperation and dialogue must be upheld. Since the improvement of the epidemic situation at the beginning of this year, China and Europe have fully resumed physical exchanges, with frequent high-level exchanges and interactions.Through these high-level visits and exchanges, the leaders of China and Europe have reached important consensus and achievements on enhancing strategic mutual trust, deepening pragmatic cooperation, strengthening international coordination, and properly managing differences, providing new political impetus for deepening exchanges and cooperation between the two sides.

Where does the strong resilience of China Europe economic and trade cooperation come from? I believe that it mainly benefits from the essence of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation between China and Europe. China and Europe are each other's second largest trading partners, with daily trade exchanges exceeding 2 billion euros. In the first five months of this year, the trade volume between China and Europe reached 2.28 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%. The scale and quality of China Europe freight trains continue to improve, reaching 216 cities in 25 European countries, playing a supporting role in promoting economic and trade exchanges between the two sides and maintaining the stability of the industrial and supply chains. The China Europe Geographical Indication Agreement has enabled more and more consumers to enjoy high-quality products from both sides, such as Qingdao Beer, Gannan Navel Orange, Wuchang Rice, Bavarian Beer, and Parma Ham. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the European Union. As the two major powers and civilizations of the world, China Europe relations have undergone decades of ups and downs. There are no major conflicts of interest or geopolitical contradictions between China and Europe, and their common interests far outweigh their differences. China Europe relations can and can provide more stability and positive energy to the world.

Where do the huge advantages of China Europe economic and trade cooperation come from? I think it mainly comes from three aspects:

Firstly, there is a bright prospect for China's economic growth. In the first half of this year, against the backdrop of insufficient global economic growth momentum and a slowdown in global trade growth, China's overall economic performance rebounded and improved, with a growth rate of 5.5%, clearly leading other major economies; Recently, the United Nations and the World Bank have raised their expectations for China's economic growth this year, with China's contribution to global economic growth expected to reach around one-third. Many multinational executives such as Tesla and HSBC have sparked a wave of visits to China, casting a vote of confidence in the Chinese economy. China has the demand advantage of a super large market, the supply advantage of a complete industrial system, and the talent advantage of a large number of high-quality workers and entrepreneurs, which is a huge dividend that China has provided to the world. The strong resilience, great potential, abundant vitality, and long-term positive fundamentals of the Chinese economy will not change. We have the ability and confidence to promote sustained and healthy economic development. China has embarked on a new journey of promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese path to modernization. As more than 1.4 billion people move towards modernization as a whole, China will inject new momentum into the global economic recovery and provide more new opportunities for countries around the world, including Europe, with its new development.

Secondly, it is China's firm determination to open up to the outside world. This year marks the 45th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. Opening up to the outside world is China's basic national policy. No matter how the external environment changes, our determination to expand high-level opening up to the outside world will not change. Guided by the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China will further expand market access, reduce the negative list of foreign investment access, deeply participate in global industrial division of labor and cooperation, and enhance the level of modern service industry openness. We will continue to optimize the business environment, implement national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises, focus on creating a market-oriented, legal, and international first-class business environment, and build a global network of high standard free trade zones. These optimization measures will bring significant benefits to European companies that are deeply rooted in the Chinese market.

Thirdly, it is China's practical actions to maintain economic globalization. China is striving to integrate the world's most populous country into the global market through reform and opening up. Today, China has become a major trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions, maintaining its position as the world's largest goods trading country for six consecutive years. Every day, 320 million US dollars are directly invested by China and exported to the world. More than 3000 foreign-funded enterprises settle in China every month. The World Bank predicts that by 2030, China's initiative to jointly build the "the Belt and Road" will generate US $1.6 trillion in revenue for the world every year. We firmly believe that economic globalization is an irreversible historical process. Despite encountering some setbacks and even hidden dangers, the world cannot return to a state of isolation and isolation from each other, let alone be artificially cut off. Open cooperation remains a historical trend, and mutual benefit and win-win outcomes remain the aspiration of people's hearts. At present, the world economic recovery is in a critical stage. China adheres to the correct direction of globalization, opposes "building walls and barriers" and "decoupling and breaking chains" through practical actions, opposes unilateralism and protectionism, and plays a crucial role in maintaining the stability of the global supply chain.

Looking ahead to the future, I am full of expectations for China Europe relations. It should be noted that due to differences in historical culture, social systems, and development stages, it is normal for China and Europe to have different views on certain issues. This has not affected the realization of mutual benefit and win-win for both sides in the past few decades, and should not become a stumbling block on the path of China Europe cooperation in the future. Recently, European intellectuals have issued positive voices advocating for strategic autonomy and opposing decoupling from China. However, at the same time, the noise of "reducing dependence" and "removing risks" towards China is still fermenting, interfering with normal communication and cooperation between the two sides. We should be highly vigilant about this. We understand that the European side hopes to maintain its own economic security, but it should not be overly securitized or politicized, let alone promote anti globalization and so-called "de Sinicization".

To promote China Europe cooperation to achieve new and greater development in the new era, I would like to offer several suggestions:

One is to deepen mutual trust and cooperation. The development of mutually beneficial cooperation cannot be separated from a favorable climate of bilateral relations. Next, both China and Europe will negotiate to hold a new round of China Europe Leaders Meeting, strategic, digital, economic and trade high-level dialogue, and professional consultations, fully activate cooperation in various fields, and lead the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Europe to warm up.

The second is to strengthen open cooperation. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the initiative of jointly building the "the Belt and Road". After ten years of development, the "the Belt and Road" has become an open, inclusive, mutually beneficial and win-win international cooperation platform, helping more and more countries to promote social and economic development. The EU's "Global Gateway" plan and the "the Belt and Road" initiative complement each other, both aimed at promoting global development, and should learn from and support each other. Next month, China will hold the third "the Belt and Road" International Cooperation Summit Forum to summarize achievements and forge a blueprint. It is hoped that the European business community will seize the opportunity, actively participate in the high-quality construction of the "the Belt and Road", and work together to expand the cake of common interests. We also welcome everyone to continue using the China International Import Expo and the China International Fair for Trade in Services as opportunities to further expand practical cooperation, deepen interest integration, share development achievements, and contribute to building an open world economy.

The third is to expand high-quality cooperation. The green and digital fields are the focus of industrial transformation between China and Europe. Both sides should seize the opportunity to carry out higher level, higher standards, and higher quality cooperation in these two areas, achieve complementary advantages, and promote their respective transformation and upgrading. Both sides should strengthen cooperation in clean energy, sustainable finance, artificial intelligence, and scientific research and innovation, and promote the deepening and implementation of the China Europe green and digital partnership. Since the beginning of this year, China and Europe have held two high-level dialogues on environment and climate, reaching many consensus and achieving fruitful results. The business communities of both sides should continue to leverage the enthusiasm and creativity of market entities, explore the potential for cooperation in areas such as environmental technology, renewable energy, and carbon markets, and create more new growth points for cooperation.

There is a European proverb: one person's effort is addition, and everyone's effort is multiplication. I believe that as long as everyone has firm confidence in cooperation, sets the right direction for cooperation, breaks down barriers to cooperation, and transforms addition into multiplication, the path of China Europe cooperation will surely become wider and wider, and the future of China Europe relations will surely be even better!