Chinese Premier of the State Council Li, Ke Qiang met with President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker in Brussels, Belgium on 9th April 2019 for the 21st China-EU Summit which has been ongoing annually since 1998. A Joint Summit Statement was reached upon the closing of this meeting at a higher level. In general, a partnership containing peace, prosperity and sustainability was the founding stone.
China has its wish of promoting and advancing cooperation and exchanges in technology and innovation. Seeking a strengthened market cooperation at mutual trust and benefits is the key. To the EU’s perspective, the purpose was advancing the strategic partnership that they have been having with China. The rebalance of such partnership was also considered based on the opportunities and challenges presented by China. EU knew that seclusion and conservation will not bring the community forward for too long if only risks on being negatively affected by other players in the world is mitigated. This is an era of learning to be more competitive from others at every moment. Being discrete about own and others’ competitive advantages and any shift as such is the key attitude.
China agreed to open markets in a deeper degree to agricultural products and foods coming from the Union with adherence to the ISO provisions. The discussion regarding cooperation on 5G internet operations was touched upon and a friendly consensus on advancement of communication and technical collaboration.
The good news for many European businesses is that China is expeditiously working on better transparency, more fairness, more mutual respect in transnational collaborations and trading，particularly those concerning technology or intellectual properties. This signifies politically reducing gaps between local businesses and foreign investors. Increasing facilitation and protection will be in place, or some of these were already in place — the lately modified Foreign Investment Law offers a warm welcome to foreign businesses.
The fertile ground between China and EU for many opportunities of trades, export and import, ICT, agriculture and cultural exchange is upgraded. For businesses, the important line is about trust. People always find more opportunities and result with more successes where mutual trust is built. Stay tuned to follow up with more update on China and Europe in our next blog.
