Europe rains on Washington's parade of decoupling from China

A freight train bound for Hamburg, Germany is ready to depart at the Shijiazhuang international land port in north China's Hebei Province, on April 17, 2021. (Photo by Zhang Xiaofeng/Xinhua)

Many European leaders and entrepreneurs have rejected recently the possibility of suspending trade with China and reiterated the need to cooperate economically with China seeing its vigorous rebound.

BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Although some in the United States are pursuing a decoupling from China, many European leaders and entrepreneurs have rejected recently the possibility of suspending trade with China and reiterated the need to cooperate economically with China seeing its vigorous rebound.

"We must not disassociate ourselves, separate ourselves from China," said French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to China earlier this month. During his recent trip to China, the French president witnessed the signing of multiple trade agreements covering areas such as aeronautics, energy and agriculture, among others.

Noting "China is a vital trading partner," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed her will to not "cut economic, societal, political and scientific ties" with China in a debate of the European Parliament on April 18.

In his visit to China in November, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany firmly supports trade liberalization, supports economic globalization, and opposes decoupling, adding that Germany stands ready for closer trade and economic cooperation with China, and supports more mutual investment by Chinese and German businesses.

Despite the Ukraine crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, trade ties between China and Europe are resilient. After China became the EU's largest trading partner in 2020, bilateral trade reached a record level in 2022, exceeding 850 billion euros (936 billion U.S. dollars), according to the European statistical service Eurostat.

For many European entrepreneurs, China is home to potential partners. During a recent interview, chief executive officer of Airbus Guillaume Faury told Xinhua that "what always strikes me in China is the energy, the speed, the optimism, and the ability to go fast."

Oliver Blume, chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG (VW), sees China as the most important market for his company and underlined that in a recent interview with Xinhua, saying that VW will seek more cooperation opportunities in the future.

China-EU investment has also been strong. In 2022, despite headwinds, EU investment in China surged 96.6 percent year on year, according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, China has continued to invest in Europe, particularly in advanced technologies like software and semiconductors.

China is a critical supplier of 276 types of goods for the United States, according to an analysis published last October by trade credit insurance company Allianz Trade. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai denied recently that their country was seeking to decouple its economy from that of China.

China is also an important partner for the rest of the world. "Europe belongs to the Western world, but a break-up with Beijing would be economically dangerous," said a study published in April by the French Institute of International Relations.

"China provides not only a lot of consumer goods, but also intermediate goods needed for European production," and any disruption in this area would lead to supply shortages, production interruptions and inflation, said the French newspaper Les Echos in March.

Meanwhile, the EU also plays a relatively "substantial" role in the Chinese supply chain. The 27 countries of the union are the crucial supplier of 188 types of goods to China with China as a critical supplier for 141 types of goods for the EU, according to Allianz Trade.