von der Leyen warns: If China-EU talks fail, the EU is ready to act

Von der Leyen is once again promoting her familiar narrative that the EU has a trade deficit with China.

On the 27th, European Commission President von der Leyen delivered a speech at an event stating that the current EU-China trade deficit is approaching €1 billion per day, and the EU's dependence on China for critical raw materials has exceeded 90%.

Von der Leyen claimed that this high level of dependency "is being used by China as leverage against the EU"—notably, in a moment of emotional intensity, she even raised her hand and made several downward chopping motions, threatening that if dialogue fails to resolve the issue, the EU will deploy all available policy tools.

The argument put forward by von der Leyen—that the trade deficit with China is entirely China’s fault—is thoroughly debunked by repeated statements from China’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Commerce. The so-called trade deficit she cites is actually the result of selective statistics: focusing solely on goods trade while ignoring services trade. When tourism, finance, intellectual property rights, and other service sectors are included, the EU actually runs a surplus with China.

Moreover, where does the goods trade deficit come from? Simply put, it stems from the fact that the EU buys more from China than it sells to China. But the real reason isn’t that China exports too much—it’s because, as China advances its industrial upgrading, the products offered by the EU increasingly fail to meet Chinese demand. At the same time, when it comes to high-tech products that China truly desires, the EU imposes strict restrictions and refuses to sell them.

Therefore, the trade deficit between China and the EU should actually be attributed to the EU’s own export controls. Yet the EU turns around and blames China for buying too little and exporting too much—how can such logic possibly stand?

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1874768850596937/

Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author