Automotive Exports September 2023

China calls
West’s economic
de-risking ‘false
proposition’
Chinese Premier Li Qiang slammed efforts
in the West to “de-risk” their economies as
a “false proposition”, hitting back against
U.S. and EU policy aimed at reducing their
reliance on China.
The United States and the European Union
have in recent months moved to “de-risk”
from the world’s second-largest economy.
“In the West, some people are hyping up
what is called ‘cutting reliance and derisking’,”
Li told delegates at the opening
of a World Economic Forum meeting in
northern China.
“These two concepts... are a false
proposition, because the development of
economic globalisation is such that the
world economy has become a common
entity in which you and I are both
intermingled,” he said.
“The economies of many countries are
blended with each other, rely on each
other, make accomplishments because of
one another, and develop together,” he
added.
“This is actually a good thing, not a bad
thing.”
Meeting of the World Economic Forum in
the port city of Tianjin - known colloquially
as the “Summer Davos” - is the first of
its kind after a three-year hiatus caused
by the Covid pandemic. It will last until
tommorow.
European Commission President Ursula von
der Leyen in January described the EU’s
approach to China as “de-risking rather
than decoupling” since the bloc still sought
to work and trade with Beijing.
And President Joe Biden has kept former
leader Donald Trump’s hard line on
China, and in some areas gone further,
including banning exports of high-end
semiconductors to the rising power.
Responding to Beijing’s heated criticism
of the move, Secretary of State Antony
Blinken in Beijing insisted that the
United States was not seeking “economic
containment” of China.
“But at the same time,” he said, “it’s not in
our interest to provide technology to China
that could be used against us.”
Five percent growth
China is on course to achieve its five
percent target for economic growth in 2023
set by Beijing earlier this year, Li also told
the audience at the forum, which is being
attended by leaders from New Zealand,
Mongolia, Vietnam and Barbados, as well
as a large delegation from Saudi Arabia.
“For the whole year, we are expected to
achieve the target of about five percent
economic growth set at the beginning of
this year,” Li said.
“We are fully confident and capable of
pushing ahead the steady and long-term
development of China’s economy on the
track of high-quality development in the
relative long term.”
China is grappling with a slowing post-
Covid recovery, with a number of lacklustre
indicators signalling the rebound is running
out of steam. Beijing’s central bank cut two
key interest rates in a bid to counter the
slowdown in the world’s second-largest
economy.
September 2023 44