Chinese Premier Li Qiang is on an official visit in France after wrapping up his fruitful Germany tour, his first trip abroad since taking office.
The visit to the two heavyweights on the European continent serves as a stabilizer in a volatile world, allowing China and its European partners to bring into full play their face-to-face interactions to increase trust and dispel doubts. Meanwhile, both sides have been keen to tap more opportunities for cooperation, a booster for sustainable development.
Through candid and in-depth discussion, decoupling is perceived as harmful and maintaining an environment for cooperation featuring openness and mutual trust is deemed a top priority.
Imposing discriminatory measures in the name of “de-risking” is unwise and will do no good to anyone.
Illustrating his point at the 11th China-Germany Economic and Technical Cooperation Forum, Li said that the Chinese “don’t think it’s risky to drive in a Volkswagen, nor do we think it’s unsafe to get a CT by Siemens equipment.” China never regards these as risks, and never means to “de-risk” from them, but instead stays committed to opening up and international cooperation.
Risk prevention and cooperation are never contradictory. In fact, failure to cooperate is the biggest risk. To prevent and tackle risks in a reasonable manner requires parties involved to strengthen negotiation and cooperation on a case-by-case basis.
The European economy faces daunting tasks of sustaining a sluggish recovery, defeating sticky inflation and relieving financial stress. It is a rational decision for European countries to embrace cooperation with China to underpin post-pandemic recovery, which serves the interests of both sides.
Li’s meetings and exchanges with political and business leaders in Germany and France attest to their consensus on opposing decoupling and bloc confrontation, and their conviction to bring China-Europe ties back on the right track. The friendly cooperation with Germany and France set a prime example for other European countries, and inject stability and certainty in the interdependent global community in times of turbulence.
To safeguard this stability, China and Europe should adhere to economic globalization and multilateral cooperation.
China and its European partners have accumulated rich experience and leveraged their complementary advantages through decades of economic and technological cooperation. On top of that, the premier’s visit has yielded substantial results, represented by the signing of a spectrum of cooperation documents with Germany and France respectively covering such fields as economy and trade, innovation and advanced manufacturing.
In this regard, creating a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for enterprises carries more importance than ever in respect of yielding more high-quality win-win outcomes and maintaining the stability and resilience of the industrial and supply chains in a global context.
China and Europe should also double down on cooperation in areas significant for addressing global challenges facing humankind and promoting sustainable growth.
As major players on the global arena, China and Germany agreed to set up a dialogue and cooperation mechanism on climate change and green transition, and hold environmental forum and health dialogue, shouldering their responsibility to deal with pressing challenges concerning climate change, food safety and public health that call for committed and coordinated endeavors.
The two European countries also recognized the need to join hands with China to tap into emerging areas such as digital economy and artificial intelligence, among others, to promote common development in the long run.
Twenty years ago, China established comprehensive strategic partnership with the European Union. Today, it is believed that with a mature cooperation mechanism and growing willingness to maintain sound political mutual trust, greater potential will be unleashed not only for the betterment of the two peoples, but for a more resilient world economy.
