Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin Photo: mfa.gov.cn

China's Foreign Ministry on Friday urged the EU to work with China to maintain two-way openness, promote the liberalization of trade and investment, and create a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for enterprises of the two sides rather than advocating "de-risking" and "reducing dependence" on China. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing, responding to a recently released report by the Jacques Delors Institute headquartered in Paris. The report noted that it is an inevitable choice for the EU to realize its own development and growth with the help of China, calling on the EU to maintain a rational bottom line on "de-risking," pursue a more rational and pragmatic policy toward China, and strengthen mutually beneficial and pragmatic cooperation in energy, green, science and technology and other fields. 

"In this age of 'de-risking,' a one-size-fits-all approach to China is inadequate. Europe must craft tools for a finely tuned understanding of mutual strengths and strategies to prevent systemic rivalry from overshadowing partnership and competition," according to the report. 

Wang said that the report underscored that China-EU relations have a solid foundation in public opinion. China and Europe are partners, not rivals, and the bilateral cooperation is a positive cycle of mutual achievement, not a knockout game in which you lose and I win. 

Some people unilaterally emphasized the rivalry between China and Europe, but ignored the bilateral cooperation and advocated "de-risking" and "reducing dependence" on China, said Wang. This erroneous perception of China will not only aggravate misunderstanding and erode mutual trust, but also run counter to EU's consistent advocacy of free trade and WTO rules and interfere with the development of China-EU relations, which is not in line with the interests of any party, he said. 

China believes that the risk that we need to get rid of the most is confrontation and rivalry caused by politicizing all issues and the dependence that needs to be reduced the most is the act of resorting to protectionism. China and the EU are important parts of the global industrial and supply chains and staunch force in building an open-world economy, Wang said. 

China hopes the EU to work with the Chinese side to maintain two-way openness instead of building walls and barriers, promote the liberalization of trade and investment instead of protectionism, and create a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for enterprises of the two sides, while promoting the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations and injecting more stability and certainty into a volatile world, Wang said. 

Global Times