EU-China decoupling: Volkswagen chairman Herbert Diess says Brussels needs more cooperation with Beijing
- Herbert Diess says it would be ‘very damaging if Germany or the EU wanted to decouple from China’
- Volkswagen chairman calls for cooperation, dialogue and an expansion of economic relations
Volkswagen AG’s top executive Herbert Diess has warned Europe against decoupling with China and called for more cooperation, as economic relations between major Western countries and Beijing turn sour.
“It would be very damaging if Germany or the EU wanted to decouple from China,” Diess wrote on social media platform LinkedIn on Monday.
“As a global company, we will never stop advocating for globalisation, a multilateral rules-based trading system and engagement.
“We need more cooperation and presence in China, not less!”
We need more cooperation and presence in China, not less!
The world’s second largest economy is leveraging its huge domestic market to gain as much support as it can, as hawks in Washington and Brussels call for further decoupling to ensure the supply of critical products, which were exposed as vulnerable to disruption during the pandemic.