China must strike a balance between opening up and protecting its markets, EU diplomat says
- China is asking itself how to correctly balance autonomy, economic resilience and free trade, EU ambassador to China Nicolas Chapuis says
- Envoy also hits out at Beijing’s decision to close its doors to foreigners out of fear of importing new coronavirus cases
China must strike a balance between opening up and promoting free trade while defending its domestic markets and increasing self-reliance, a European diplomat said in Beijing on Thursday.
“The big question China is asking itself is how to strike the right balance between autonomy, resilience of our economies and open and free trade,” Chapuis said.
“If we continue to go on the path of the past few months of big power competition, then let me say this very clearly, that we are all going to fail. So we will recover together or we fail separately.”
China’s leaders, including Xi, have regularly used the phrase “dual circulation” this year to describe the country’s new strategy amid economic and political headwinds, especially from developed countries.