Don't stare at China all day and talk nonsense. Isolating oneself doesn't mean risking Europe | Financial Times | Risk
On July 29th, the Financial Times published an interview article with Stefan Harton, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bosch Group in Germany. The "leader" of Europe's largest automotive parts supplier stated that European countries should not hype up "corporate risks in China", but should strive to improve the competitiveness of the European Union. He bluntly stated that Europe cannot reduce risks by isolating itself.
According to reports, for a period of time, some European countries have become concerned about companies' dependence on China due to geopolitical factors, and the frequency of the term "risk reduction" is increasing. Earlier this month, the German government also released its first "China Strategy", warning German companies to reduce their dependence on China under the guise of "risk reduction".
But Hatong believes that European governments should spend more time improving the competitiveness of the European Union, rather than hyping up the "risks" of European companies conducting business in China. He told the Financial Times at the headquarters of Bosch Group in Stuttgart, Germany that if Europeans want to maintain competitiveness, governments need to target improving the single market.
He pointed out that there are still significant problems within the EU 27, "You often find that in many areas, barriers and import and export relations between European countries are worse than doing business outside of Europe."
In Hatong's view, the focus on the topic of "risk reduction" at least means that European politicians are indeed studying the issue of "the interests of European companies". But he bluntly said, "'De risk 'is not a good term because it's too simple... you can't reduce risk by isolating yourself."
Data image: Stefan Hartuntu, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bosch Group in Germany, from the Bosch Group website
The Financial Times reported that China has a dominant position in the emerging electric vehicle industry, and the European automotive industry is striving to keep up with the pace of global competition. Bosch announced last year that it will invest 2 billion euros in training some employees to better adapt to the era of electric vehicles. Earlier this month, Bosch also announced an investment of 2.5 billion euros in the research and manufacturing of hydrogen technology.
The Chinese market occupies an important position in Bosch Group's business. Last year, approximately half of Bosch's sales of 88.2 billion euros came from regions outside of Europe. According to Reuters in February, Bosch's sales in the Chinese market account for about one-fifth of its global total sales.
Over the past decade, Bosch's cumulative investment in the Chinese market has exceeded 50 billion yuan. In January this year, Bosch announced an investment of $1 billion to build a new energy vehicle core components and autonomous driving research and manufacturing base in Suzhou. "China is the world's largest automotive market, full of hope and vitality. As a multinational enterprise, we need to fully utilize the country's domestic R&D and production capabilities," Hartong said in a statement at the time
Several European corporate executives have issued warnings about the decoupling issue hyped up by some Western politicians. In April, Kang Linsong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mercedes Benz AG in Germany, emphasized in an interview with Bild that China has close relationships with major global economic players such as Europe and the United States, and decoupling from China is not realistic and will only put most of Germany's industries at risk.
CEO of Merck Group in Germany, Greihe, also stated at a press event in June that lifting trade relations with China will come at a huge economic cost, and she hopes to ease tensions between China and Western powers through dialogue. "Globalization has brought benefits to the world, brought more innovation and cooperation, but we are taking the risk of losing it," warned Ge Lihe
