Protectionism will only dampen foreign companies' confidence in investing in Europe: Chinese spokesperson

BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Protectionism will only cost Europe the opportunities of digital transformation, undermine its economic and social development as well as its open-market environment, and dampen foreign companies' confidence in investing there, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Wednesday.

The European Union (EU) telecom lobby Connect Europe reportedly said in an open letter that the revision of the Cybersecurity Act by the European Commission would force European telecommunications firms to spend an additional 40 billion euros for equipment replacement.

In response, Guo told a regular news briefing that other institutions had previously assessed that the act could cause loss of up to over 360 billion euros in the EU over the next five years.

The open letter by European telecommunications companies once again proves that such EU practices are detrimental to others without benefiting the EU itself, the spokesperson said.

"Protectionism does not build competitiveness," Guo said. "We hope the EU will heed the voice of reason across various sectors and not adopt discriminatory restrictions."