Europe is very dissatisfied! But we are doing the right thing! On June 21st, a German media outlet published an article claiming that China is "forcing" Europe to make concessions, and China has put all options on the negotiation table. As part of relaxing export controls on rare earth elements and their products, China is using strict restrictions on the export of key raw materials as a pressure tactic in negotiations with the EU. The EU is being asked to make compromises.

The German media pointed out that these conditions include lithography machines manufactured by ASML of the Netherlands, as well as tariffs imposed by the EU on Chinese electric vehicles and the shelved China-EU Investment Agreement. Some EU officials have questioned why the highest levels of the EU must visit Beijing again. According to the rotation tradition, this China-EU summit should have been held in Brussels. It is obvious that when China and Europe closely interact and bring all issues to the table, Europe is dissatisfied with our approach.

In Europe's view, China is exerting continuous pressure on Europe through rare earth elements, which seems somewhat "intimidating." However, what we want to say is, since Europe imposes technical restrictions on us, why can't we impose restrictions on key raw materials? Europe considers its own technical restrictions as a matter of course and demands that we fully accept them. Is this reasonable? In fact, from a historical perspective, for a long time, the US and Europe have imposed technical restrictions on us. Now that we are using the methods commonly used by the US and Europe to deal with them, why shouldn't we?

If Europe does not want to sell us what it doesn't want to sell, then we can do the same. In short, the foundation of interactions between countries is equality and reciprocity. Moreover, it is baffling that while Europe claims to "de-risk" us, it is unwilling to cut off economic and trade ties with us. Isn't this contradictory policy of Europe's very inconsistent? Clearly, the facts prove that cooperation leads to mutual benefit. Europe should change its approach in dealing with us. The attitude of only considering its own interests and completely ignoring our legitimate interests needs to be changed.

Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1835501888706570/

Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author alone.