On one fiery panel billed as “EU-China trade relations, partnership or sinking ship?”, top European business figures and observers looked exasperated as Chinese speakers disregarded their insistence that Europe remained comparably open to Chinese goods.
“It is neither a sinking ship nor a partnership – it’s a 400-metre-long giant container ship loaded with 24,000 containers going to Europe and coming back almost empty,” said Jens Eskelund, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.
In response, Jian Junbo, a researcher at Fudan University’s Centre for China-EU Relations, said it was “unfortunate that the EU is taking decoupling policies with China”, adding that the pair should “work together to fight protectionism”.
Eskelund bit back, pointing out that 42 per cent of all shipping containers coming into Europe were from China and that Chinese container shipments to the bloc rose by 17 per cent last year.
“For once and for all we need to kill the myth of European protectionism,” he said.
“Europe is extraordinarily open … If you came from Mars and were told to look whether it was China or Europe being protectionist, it would take a split second to determine that China is the protectionist country.”
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On one fiery panel billed as “EU-China trade relations, partnership or sinking ship?”, top European business figures and observers looked exasperated as Chinese speakers disregarded their insistence that Europe remained comparably open to Chinese goods.
“It is neither a sinking ship nor a partnership – it’s a 400-metre-long giant container ship loaded with 24,000 containers going to Europe and coming back almost empty,” said Jens Eskelund, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.
In response, Jian Junbo, a researcher at Fudan University’s Centre for China-EU Relations, said it was “unfortunate that the EU is taking decoupling policies with China”, adding that the pair should “work together to fight protectionism”.
Eskelund bit back, pointing out that 42 per cent of all shipping containers coming into Europe were from China and that Chinese container shipments to the bloc rose by 17 per cent last year.
“For once and for all we need to kill the myth of European protectionism,” he said.
“Europe is extraordinarily open … If you came from Mars and were told to look whether it was China or Europe being protectionist, it would take a split second to determine that China is the protectionist country.”