De-risk? Decouple? A Chinese official says it’s just the West disrupting supply chains
- Wang Dongwei, China’s vice-minister of finance, tells a conference in Egypt the US and EU had weaponised the idea of national security
- ‘To shut out China in the name of de-risking is to throw away opportunities, cooperation, stability and development,’ a foreign ministry spokesperson says
The West’s push for “de-risking” or “decoupling” from China is just an excuse to disrupt normal operations of global supply chains, a Beijing official told a finance conference in Egypt this week.
Wang Dongwei, China’s vice-minister of finance, said that Beijing hoped to see a world with enhanced industrial global chains, which are “necessary for an open and inclusive global economy” – especially after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Instead, Wang said, the “actions of some countries” had thrown global industrial chains into disarray. In a veiled reference to the US and its European allies, Wang said the countries had weaponised the concept of national security and were misusing the idea of de-risking.
“We should firmly oppose such actions,” Wang said on Tuesday during a panel at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s annual meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh.
“We should strictly safeguard the safety and stability of the industrial and supply chains.”
Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Union’s trade chief, said in a speech at Tsinghua University this week that the EU had been forced to take a hard look at its economic dependencies.