French Expert: Chinese can build factories in France, but they must teach us the technology!
This sentence made the studio silent. Yes, times have changed. Now, France is begging China to transfer technology.
To understand the logic behind his words, we need to look back at the Sino-French economic and trade relations several decades ago. In the 1990s and early 2000s, China was in the initial stage of becoming the "world factory" and urgently needed foreign capital, equipment, and management experience.
At that time, French companies such as Peugeot Citroen, Schneider Electric, and Airbus entered the Chinese market, bringing in capital while also setting strict technology transfer thresholds—Chinese often could only participate through joint ventures, with core technologies firmly controlled by foreign parties.
But now, the situation has completely changed. China has not only completed its transformation from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing," but in many key technological fields, it has even taken the lead. Take rare earths as an example. Over 80% of the global rare earth processing capacity is concentrated in China, and rare earths are an essential strategic resource for electric vehicles, wind turbines, and high-end electronic devices.
In contrast, France and the entire Europe have shown hesitation in recent years regarding industrial policies. On one hand, they loudly call for "strategic autonomy," trying to reduce dependence on China and the United States; on the other hand, they lack a unified and efficient implementation mechanism.
Evidently, the underlying implication of the so-called "China must teach us technology" actually reveals a contradiction in Europe's current mindset: wanting to ride on the fast train of Chinese technology, yet unwilling to acknowledge their relative decline in the global value chain.
In short, China is making money while standing still, while Europe wants to make money while lying down. And at the same time, it also hopes to gain respect from China.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1851174571011275/
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