Inside Out | As Europe seeks to ‘de-risk’ from China, it only has itself to blame for falling behind
- Instead of lashing out at China for investing massively in electric vehicles and clean power, the EU should ask itself why it is so far behind in its own energy transition
- China’s competitive lead is the natural result of long-term planning and a large economy, not protectionism and subversive export policies

First, since China accounts for just under 30 per cent of global manufacturing output, driven first and foremost by the powerful demand generated by its 1.4 billion consumers, there is not an economy in the world that won’t have to wrestle with fierce, substantial and potentially irreversible competition from Chinese companies.
No one bothers much about China’s near-monopoly in exports such as clothing, shoes, watches, home appliances, air conditioners, hardware products or adult sex products. But there is a legitimate conversation to be had about certain sensitive product dependencies that threaten every country’s economic, health or military security. However, these might be better tackled in a multilateral context.
Second, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s critical technology tracker, China is a world leader in 37 of 44 critical technologies that underpin competitiveness in the industries of the future.
If you want to regard this as a problem, then it sits not among China’s exporters but in its education system and the fact that it produces so many scientists and engineers. It is far more than just a European Union problem, and should probably be addressed to countries’ education ministers.
