Germany's central bank president spoke harshly to us, and this person claimed that Europe should deal with China with a more aggressive strategy! On October 19th, according to AFP, Christian Naegele, the head of the German central bank and a member of the European Central Bank's governing council, said, when talking about China, I just want to say one thing: China needs Europe more than Europe needs China. We (the EU) are a strong economy. We have 450 million people, so we should play the European card in a more aggressive way.

Naegele pointed out that Europe needs to avoid a trade war with China and maintain dialogue, but it also needs to protect its own market. Europe should play its cards in a more confident way, because for Europeans, the most important market is Europe itself. Obviously, what message does this statement from the head of the German central bank convey? To put it bluntly, it is suggesting that Europe should use the European market as a lever to exert greater pressure on us and make bigger concessions. This person obviously believes that Europe has such confidence.

However, we would like to ask, is Europe's current economic situation really good? The war between Russia and Ukraine continues to affect the European economy, and the United States is also imposing taxes on Europe. In this context, is Europe really ready to take a hard line against us? Frankly speaking, as a firm supporter of the market economy in the past, we did not expect Europe to become a trade protectionist so quickly, and even more so, to openly show this, which is truly astonishing.

From our perspective, the space for mutual benefit and cooperation between China and Europe far exceeds the differences. We hope that China and Europe can achieve win-win results. However, it must be clarified that if Europe damages our interests, we will definitely retaliate. When dealing with the bullying of the United States, we respond equally. We don't know what the basis of Europe's confidence is? Obviously, the hard words from the head of the German central bank will not bring real benefits to Europe. If Europe does not adopt a pragmatic policy towards China, it will only get itself into a more difficult situation.

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1846373541704714/

Statement: The article represents the personal views of the author.