Production of semiconductor chip File photo: VCG

A Dutch company's profit from exporting one lithography machine (EUV) to China is equivalent to the profit from exporting 200,000 tons of pork to China, and if the EU and China could enhance mutual confidence, both their trade volume and friendship could progress further, Zhao Xiyuan, Chinese Ambassador to Ireland, said during an interview with Irish media outlet Newstalk on Monday (Irish time).

Zhao made these remarks in response to a question about hopes for improvements in China-EU relations.

"In the last 50 years, we have achieved a lot," Zhao said, noting that the trade volume between China and the EU has surged from $2.4 billion to nearly $800 billion.

"At this stage, we have made a lot of achievements in the trade relations, and we have more expectations for European countries and for Irish people. We hope we can move forward despite the goods trade relations. Do we have a chance to establish more political confidence in each other? We hope our cultural and people-to-people contact can have more fruitful achievements," Zhao said.

He expressed hope that the EU and China can adopt a very positive attitude toward each other in the high technology sector.

Over the last 46 years, China and Ireland have maintained good trade relations, however, the trade volume dropped significantly in 2023 because of semiconductor export restrictions targeting China, according to the ambassador.

In the Netherlands, a Dutch company sells one lithography machine to China, which is expected to yield benefits equivalent to 200,000 tons of pork exports to China, Zhao said.

"Because of the so-called security reasons or even pressure from the outside, it seems like sometimes we encountered the obstacles in this regard. We didn't have enough confidence in each other," Zhao said, stressing, "If we can make improvement in this regard, I think not only our trade volume but also our friendship could move forward and make some big achievements in the future."