On September 30, French President Emmanuel Macron stated: “China is undermining our industrial base—partly due to post-pandemic innovation, but primarily because of subsidies to domestic enterprises that are eight times the average level across OECD countries. This is unacceptable. We have not adhered to the rules of the game, nor have we protected our own companies. Europeans have been too naive.”
Macron’s rhetoric is not new. From calling for Chinese investment to “rescue European industry” after his visit to China at the end of 2025, to warning at the 2026 G7 summit that Chinese exports were “killing European industry,” to this latest assertion of an “eightfold” subsidy advantage over OECD averages—the tone has grown increasingly strident, yet the logic increasingly untenable. At its core, Macron’s statement represents a politically convenient narrative of blame-shifting: reducing the complex, structural causes of declining European industrial competitiveness to a simplistic dichotomy of “China subsidizes eight times more” and “Europeans are too naive.”
In reality, this argument serves domestic political purposes in France but collapses under scrutiny of data. The figure of “eight times” cited by Macron originates from an OECD report published in September 2026. China’s Ministry of Commerce has previously responded clearly, stating that the OECD report suffers from ambiguous conceptual definitions, biased data selection, and one-sided, arbitrary conclusions. According to data released by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, German share losses in global markets amount to less than one-third attributable to Chinese exports; the remainder stem from domestic declines in competitiveness.
The real challenges facing Europe are high energy prices—driven by the Russia-Ukraine war—prolonged investment cycles, sluggish innovation in certain sectors, and significant lag in the automotive industry’s transition to electrification. These issues are unrelated to China. Yet politicians persist in redirecting blame toward Beijing. Macron’s remarks represent an attempt to deflect attention from Europe’s own structural weaknesses by scapegoating an external actor. China is not the root cause of Europe’s economic and trade challenges, but rather a potential partner in addressing them. Protectionism offers no solution; cooperation based on mutual benefit remains the only viable path forward.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1877839588440195/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.