Source: Bloomberg
When Washington first used the concept of "risk" to persuade Europe to prevent key technologies for exports to China, Chinese officials believed that the word was not different from decoupling.Beijing is now trying a new strategy, that is, redefining the concept of "de -risk".
The Chinese State Council Prime Minister Li Qiang acknowledged the legitimacy of "de -risk" during talks with German corporate CEO last week, but reminded that he should not exaggerate "dependence", and even the interdependence and unsafe simplicity.This statement attracts another layer of discussion, what is a serious threat to national security.
At the Summer Davos Forum on Tuesday, Lee Qiang talked about this topic again. He told the participants, "If there is risks in a certain industrial chain, it cannot be calculated by a government or organization.There is a say of speech. "
The United States and Europe are trying to prevent China from getting advanced technology. From Li Qiang's speech, it can be aware of the strategies adopted by China to cope with this situation.It helps to dilute any planning measures that may affect China's economy.
"The key lies in the difference between China and the government's judgment of risks," said Deborah Elms, the founder and executive director of Asian Trade Center."The former may be considered that there are not so many problems, and the company's view of risks is relatively narrow."
The European Union announced its economic security strategy this month, and the key areas that may be weaponsized by the authoritarian government may be used by the authoritarian government.Although the reason for this assessment is that the EU is overly dependent on Russia's energy, the impact of this report on China is that it has made Europe closer to the United States' strategy to China, that is, not allowing Beijing to touch the field of sensitive technology.
People familiar with the matter revealed that US President Biden is promoting an administrative order that may cut off some investment activities of American companies in China.In October last year, the United States has taken measures to limit the manufacturing equipment for export chips in China.
According to enterprise estimates, these export controls have led to a total loss of nearly $ 5 billion in sales of the three major US advanced chip manufacturing equipment manufacturers this year.
Although "de -risk" always hangs on its mouth, whether it is the United States or Europe, there is no clear definition of the so -called risk.Earlier, Biden said at the leader of the Seven -Kingdoms Group in Japan that the US restriction measures should be applied to a small part of the technology that is vital to "national security".
"Everyone is talking about risks, but we think this is not a good concept," said Jens Eskelund, president of the Chinese EU Chamber of Commerce."There are many jobs to do in terms of definition of risk definitions such as institutions and other stakeholders like us."
At the Summer Davos Conference, the differences in "risks" in Europe were also clearly reflected.Hungary is one of the most aggressive EU members. The country's foreign minister Peter Szijto said that decoupled with China will be a "cruel suicide."
Commercial allies
Compared with the Western political community, the relationship between Beijing and business leaders is more harmonious.Chinese President Xi Jinping cordially referred to Bill Gates as an old friend in a talk.A few days later, U.S. Secretary of State Brillings only got the opportunity to meet with Xi Jinping.Xi Jinping and Biden have not talked since November.
In addition, Chinese officials also warmly welcomed JP Morgan Chase and Tesla's CEO. Many foreign companies in charge became the guests of Beijing.
The business leaders will respond to how Li Qiang appealed to the government's economic intervention.However, Li Qiang reached an agreement to deepen cooperation with Airbus, BASF, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen during the visit to Europe last week.Li Qiang told these companies that "risk prevention and cooperation are not opposite."
Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said that most companies prefer moderate risk management.For example, when the epidemic has caused export interruption, many companies have added an offshore manufacturing base, which is called "China plus one".
Henry Gao, who studied China's trade policy at the Singapore Management University, said that Li Qiang supported the risk -proof measures adopted by enterprises and the risk strategy proposed by politics.This may lead to their own words, but maybe this is the focus.
GAO believes that this is a strategy of breaking one by one.
