In the discussion about Europe's dependence on China, the EU Chamber of Commerce in Beijing warns of a decoupling.
"Those who withdraw from the Chinese market harm themselves," said Chamber President Jörg Wuttke on Wednesday when presenting a report on the role of European companies in China's innovation system.
A decoupling is disadvantageous for the development of products.
"If we break away from China, we lose money to keep operations going at home."
Wuttke was reacting to the debate about Europe's excessive dependence on Russia, which began after the Russian attack on Ukraine and has spread to China.
"With Russia we have an energy pipeline, but with China we have a knowledge pipeline and a capital flow pipeline," Wuttke said.
By operating and innovating in China, European companies not only support China, but also themselves.
The report states that the companies surveyed see great value in conducting research and development in China and want to expand it.
They wanted to further integrate the activities into their global strategies to take advantage of the talent pool in China, the speed of commercialization of new technologies and the potential to combine European hardware with Chinese software expertise.
restraint in some sectors
The survey was created together with the Berlin China Institute Merics and before the Ukraine war.
The study emphasizes that engaging in China's innovation system is the right strategy for many, but not for all.
While companies from sectors such as auto, chemicals and mechanical engineering were fully committed, companies from information and communication technology, for example, held back due to a lack of opportunities and government pressure in China.
The advantages in China were the large number of cooperation partners, inventive researchers, as well as the size of the market and rapid commercial application.
Disadvantages include weak copyright protection, unfair competition, a negative attitude in the domestic market towards research and development in China, and unclear processes for grants and hurdles for foreign companies.