I was fortunate to be in Beijing on the day of the Qingming Festival, one of the most traditional Chinese holidays.
Seeing this country again, first-hand, only reinforced my deep admiration and respect for the people of China.
For centuries they have helped shape world civilization, and in the last decades they have really transformed the economy of their country,
lifting more than 800 million people out of poverty in the last 45 years.
We should never lose sight of the magnitude of this transformation into a modern-day economic powerhouse, key global player,
and a leader in many of the cutting-edge technologies that certainly will shape the next decades of global civilization and progress.
And for me that also shows that decoupling is clearly not viable, desirable, or even practical for Europe.
The point I made in Beijing is that we do not want to cut economic, societal, political, and scientific ties.
We have many strong links and China is a vital trading partner.
Our trade represents some 2.3 billion euros a day.
Most of our trade in goods and services remains mutually beneficial,
but there is an urgent need to rebalance our relationship on the basis of transparency, predictability, and reciprocity.
2 人回報・1 則回應・3 年前