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

The Chinese market will continue to open to Europe, and it is hoped that the EU will relax its restrictions on the exports of high-tech products to China, said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry on Friday, one day after the 24th China-EU Summit was held in Beijing.

Wang said the current trade imbalance between China and the EU is the result of the joint actions of the macroeconomic environment, international trade conditions and the industrial structure, which cannot simply be attributed to one party or to market access issues. 

The European side has repeatedly mentioned that the trade deficit with China surged last year, which was more affected by factors such as the surge in energy prices and geopolitics, and "is of a special nature," Wang added. 

China has never deliberately pursued a trade surplus, and China's ultra-large market will continue to open to Europe. We welcome European companies to share the opportunities and hope that the EU will relax its restrictions on the exports of high-tech products to China, Wang said. 

The 24th EU-China Summit took place in Beijing on Thursday, the first to take place in-person since 2019. The two sides said the meeting has increased mutual understanding. 

Regarding the issue of overcapacity, Wang said it should be viewed from the perspective of economic globalization, adding that China's new-energy industry has its global competitiveness, and can play an important role in the EU's green transformation and the global response to climate change. 

We hoped the EU will see this issue from an objective and just manner. China is not to blame for the inadequate impetus for the EU's industrial growth, and the EU should not take this as a pretext to adopt trade protectionist measures, he added. 

Wang said that both sides believed the meeting was candid, in-depth and fruitful, as it clarified the development direction of China-EU relations, mapped the key areas for strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation, demonstrated the positive willingness of the two sides to speed up the resumption of personnel exchanges, and sent a strong signal that the two sides will work together to address global challenges.

Global Times