The European Union (EU) should welcome fair competition from China in the high-tech and service sectors and learn to adapt to China's rapid pace of development, according to former Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme. Ties between Europe and China have been in the spotlight this week as EU leaders including President of the European Council Antonio Costa and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen paid a visit to Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the EU leaders on Thursday, calling on both sides to provide more stability and certainty for the world through steady and sound China-EU relations.
Meanwhile, the 25th China-EU Summit also took place on Thursday. During that summit, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said China is willing to make joint efforts with the EU to expand mutually beneficial cooperation in trade, investment, green development, sci-tech and other fields, keep industrial and supply chains stable, and properly address differences and frictions through dialogue and consultation.
In an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN), Leterme described China as a highly constructive player in a multilateral world, holding an important position in global industrial and supply chains.
"China has been, until recently, kind of the factory of the globe, and we imported lots of products at a cheap price from China. But they were not endangering our positions in the cutting-edge technology-related products, services and markets," he said.
With this year marking the 50th anniversary since the establishment of ties between China and the EU, Leterme said the European side should adapt to and embrace competition from China while working to build a more positive bilateral relationship.
"Now we see that China, based on its own merits, is developing services and technologies that are able to compete with our best products. And that's good. It's good that we have that competition. A fair competition is excellent. But for us, there's a need to adapt to the pace of development, adapt also to the volume (that) you represent in terms of citizens, in terms of market power. And so, I think the European Union, the EU commission, now has to finish its work in terms of defending our interests, which is one of the core elements of its duties. But what I would hope is that we very rapidly now can go to a more constructive agenda for the EU-China relations," he said.
EU must embrace fair competition, adapt to China's development pace: former Belgian PM
EU must embrace fair competition, adapt to China's development pace: former Belgian PM
EU must embrace fair competition, adapt to China's development pace: former Belgian PM
