European companies at CIIE bet on China, 'not possible' to decouple

By Chu Daye, Qi Xijia

European companies are still heavily betting on China, and they said that their businesses have truly benefited from China's high-level opening-up. This forms a sharp contrast with some voices that call China's ongoing import fair a "symbolic gesture" when China is holding the world's biggest import fair in Shanghai.

Those companies, which operate in sectors ranging from the manufacturing industry to consumer goods, are showing their confidence in the long-term development in China. They said it's impossible to "decouple" from China. Instead, they will deeply cultivate the Chinese market, with efforts such as increasing investment.

"With the business opportunities brought along by the CIIE, we have achieved five consecutive years of growth in China and made total investments of 170 million euros ($181 million) in China over the past five years. This is strong proof that we cannot 'decouple' from China," Alan Wang, global business development manager of SCHOTT Pharmaceutical Systems, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

This year is the sixth time that SCHOTT AG, a Germany-based technology group, has participated in the CIIE, with 50 percent of the products being new and high-tech products.

For example, a star product is a special mirror for large astronomical telescopes, which has been used in China's new wide-field survey telescope.

"China is vigorously developing high-tech industries such as astronomy and aerospace, as well as the pharmaceutical industry. These are areas where we can collaborate and achieve mutual benefits," Wang said.

Maximilian Foerst, president of German optical giant ZEISS Greater China, told the Global Times that his company supports multilateralism.

"Cutting yourself off is not a good idea. We are definitely a global company with over 80 percent of our revenue done outside of Germany. So we are interested in fair trade relations and open relations, which is our priority. That's ZEISS' attitude," Foerst said.

"For an innovation company, innovation feeds from cross-border communication," Foerst noted. "You don't innovate here and innovate there."

In ZEISS' eyes, China's huge consumption capacity, complete manufacturing clusters and reasonable allocation of resource factors have helped it achieve performance growth and enhanced its investment confidence in the Chinese market.

France-based Schneider Electric, which is attending the fair for the sixth time, told the Global Times on Tuesday that it has signed deals with more than 30 companies at the event, up 24 percent from the previous year.

"In the past, our business was mainly in the manufacturing and construction industries. This year, it has expanded to more than 10 industries including energy, commercial construction and life sciences," Schneider Electric said.

The bullish confidence in China shown by European companies comes against the background of the EU talking about "de-risking" on various occasions.

For example, Carlo D'Andrea, vice president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China and chairman of the Shanghai Chapter, said that "European businesses are becoming disillusioned as symbolic gestures take the place of tangible results needed to restore business confidence," days ahead of the CIIE.

The contrast in attitudes between businesspeople and politicians shows the complex attitude toward China's opening-up in Europe, Cui Hongjian, professor at the Academy of Regional and Global Governance of Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"On the one hand, the attendance of the companies at the expo will bring them real benefits, but on the other hand, those politicians are advocating the reform of institutional mechanisms," Cui noted. "But in my view, the CIIE is not only a gesture, but also a symbol to show China's efforts of sharing the opportunities with the world of opening-up."

Data released by the General Administration of Customs on Tuesday showed that the EU was China's second-largest trade partner after ASEAN in the first 10 months of 2023, accounting for 13.4 percent of China's foreign trade.

"It is a fact that China does not only have the CIIE, as China is taking concrete measures to further promote its opening-up, such as institutional reform, and some European politicians should take an objective attitude toward China's opening-up instead of being negative," Cui noted.

A meeting of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform held in July 谁highlighted the importance of institutional opening-up and deepening institutional reform in investment, trade, finance and innovation, among other key areas of foreign exchanges and cooperation, to actively raise China's opening-up to a new level, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

China will continue to push forward opening-up with stronger innovation momentum, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Sunday during his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the sixth CIIE and the Hongqiao International Economic Forum.

China is willing to step up cooperation with all countries in innovation, facilitate the deep integration of science and technology with the economy, and promote the sharing of innovation results, Li said.
This article originally appeared at globaltimes.cn