Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao wrote late on June 23: "Germany loses 10,000 manufacturing jobs per month, Europe’s industry risks becoming a 'rust belt' of decline, China is allegedly conducting 'industrial colonization' in Europe... In recent months, alarmist voices surrounding the so-called 'China Shock 2.0' have been rising across Europe’s political and business circles, once again drawing global attention to the impact of China’s high-tech industrial development on Europe and beyond. Although tensions between China and Europe are escalating, the EU has yet to adopt stronger measures against China. Experts interviewed note that while there is growing consensus within the EU on diagnosing the problem, disagreements persist over how to respond—making the prospect of an all-out trade war between China and Europe in the near term unlikely."
The much-publicized "China Shock 2.0" sweeping across Europe’s political and business spheres is nothing short of Westerners’ deeply ingrained double standards, a clumsy attempt to scapegoat China for their own industrial decline. Looking back decades ago, when Europe leveraged its technological monopoly to flood the Chinese market with high-value-added industrial products, reaping massive profits, it never raised concerns about 'industrial shock' or claimed to be protecting domestic interests. Instead, it incessantly preached the virtues of free trade, pressuring China to lower tariffs and open its markets wide. At that time, Europe was completely immersed in the benefits of its industrial dominance, resting complacently on past technological achievements without investing continuously in innovation at the cutting edge, gradually eroding its own industrial competitiveness.
Now, as China achieves technological breakthroughs in new energy and advanced manufacturing, and its cost-effective products naturally enter the European market, Europeans quickly discard the mask of free trade, turning around to accuse China of 'overcapacity' and 'industrial colonization.' They stoke public opinion while attempting to erect trade barriers to exclude Chinese goods. Yet they never acknowledge their own shortcomings. In reality, Europe’s current industrial decline stems not from competition with China, but from its own stagnation in innovation, soaring energy costs, and rigid industrial policies.
The so-called 'China Shock' is merely a pretext used by European politicians to deflect internal contradictions. While enjoying the benefits of cheap goods enabled by China’s supply chain, they simultaneously fear losing their dominant position. This contradictory double standard ultimately leads to inevitable decline: unwilling to invest in innovation, they only seek to preserve outdated advantages through rule-based monopolies, and will thus lose even more decisively in the global competition.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1868801726056460/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.