On August 24, 2020, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with reporters after a meeting with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Affairs Sijaldo in Beihai, Guangxi. A reporter asked that the US has recently taken measures to suppress sanctions against more and more Chinese companies, and claimed that the “complete decoupling” of China and the United States is still a policy option. What does China think of this and what impact will this have on China-EU cooperation?
Wang Yi said that the so-called "decoupling" argument is neither feasible nor reasonable. If it is only political manipulation, it will ignore its own development needs and harm the welfare of ordinary people. It is a dead end doomed to nowhere.
Now is the era of globalization. All countries can play their comparative advantages in the global allocation of production factors and achieve faster development. As President Xi Jinping pointed out, the world economy has merged into the ocean and it is impossible to return to isolated lakes. The integration of the economies of various countries is a natural product of the in-depth development of the international division of labor. Forcibly stripping the existing cooperation between countries, completely contrary to the laws of market economy and against the independent will of enterprises, it will be like a "flyer" and ultimately hurt itself. The fact that China and the United States established diplomatic relations more than 40 years tells us that in order to maintain and enhance the well-being of the two peoples, we should complement each other rather than separate them, merge with each other rather than isolate each other, and cooperate for win-win rather than confrontation.
Wang Yi said that China has actively integrated into the tide of globalization since the first day of reform and opening up. China's development and opening up are closely linked, and higher quality development in the future will also require a higher level of opening up. Some countries have put forward some opinions and expectations on China's economic operation. We believe that these are all developing problems and will surely be properly resolved as China further deepens reforms and expands opening up.
Wang Yi said that both China and Europe are open economies. As supporters of globalization and the multilateral trading system, we should not allow "decoupling" arguments to interfere with the normal operation of the global industrial chain supply chain, let alone unilateral hegemony. Ling behavior disrupted normal international economic exchanges. As independent sovereign countries, we certainly have to safeguard our economic sovereignty, including digital network sovereignty, but this does not mean that we close the market to each other, but to make our economic integration more standardized and open to each other. Sustainable.
Wang Yi emphasized that China is the world’s largest potential market. As China further stimulates and revitalizes domestic demand, China will provide countries around the world with broader development space and greater market opportunities. China will continue to maintain the normalization of the epidemic. Persisting in holding the annual International Import Expo is a strong proof. China cannot develop without the world, and the world cannot develop without China. Any attempt to "decouple" from China is to "decouple" from the world's largest market in the future, "decouple" from major opportunities for its own development, and "decouple" from the unstoppable trend of the times.