EU chamber in China looks to ‘move the needle’, but is Beijing’s self-reliance push getting in the way?

Association publishes recommendations for China’s sustained recovery, calling for regulatory prudence and openness to feedback

Chamber says European Union businesses need convincing before investment inflows can reach previous levels

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Jens Eskelund (pictured), president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, says a real challenge is whether Beijing can “offer the menu that investors are craving”. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:21pm, 19 Sep 2023Updated: 4:24pm, 19 Sep 2023

A leading European business association in China has laid out a bevy of suggestions for how China can improve its economic prospects, including scaling back its push for self-reliance in the tech sector, in a report published on Tuesday.

More than 1,000 individual recommendations were made by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China in its annual position paper, which called for tangible steps from Beijing to cultivate a “transparent, consistent and predictable” regulatory environment on its road to recovery.

“At the top of a growing list of questions about the Chinese market is, what kind of relationship does China want to have with foreign enterprises,” the chamber asked.

The calls line up with Beijing’s struggles to stem downward risks in China’s post-Covid recovery, which has become a matter of global concern. A protracted property crisis, excess debt holdings by local governments, waning business confidence and falling inflows of foreign direct investment are all complicating the country’s return to stable, reliable growth.

Those woes were compounded by an announcement from the EU last week that it would launch an anti-subsidy probe into China’s exports of electric vehicles – a move that could cloud bilateral relations and change the landscape of competition in the EV sector.

The chamber’s worries are far from novel. Foreign companies have long called on Beijing to clarify policy ambiguities, as leadership’s emphasis on self-reliance and national security often appears at odds with a stated desire for steady economic expansion.

Drawing a parallel with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics, chamber president Jens Eskelund commented on the doubts plaguing foreign players as they attempt to plan for the future.