2023-07-30 09:29:24
The French Minister of Economy does not imagine an economic world without China. Bruno Le Maire indeed estimated this Sunday in Beijing that cutting all economic ties with the Asian giant was “an illusion”.
“We are totally opposed to the idea of decoupling. Decoupling is an illusion,” he said when questioned by journalists during a trip to China. “It is impossible to cut all ties between the American and European economies and that of China,” said the minister, who spoke in English to the international press at the French Embassy in Beijing.
The minister still wants more independence
Bruno Le Maire, however, defended the ambition of greater economic independence from France in certain specific sectors.
The concept of risk reduction (“de-risking”), popular in recent months with many Western countries, “does not mean that China constitutes a risk”, insisted Bruno Le Maire, wishing “to avoid any misunderstanding”. . “This means that we want to be more independent (…) We don’t want to realize, as we did during the Covid crisis, that we are too dependent on certain very specific components”.
A “false proposal” according to the Chinese Prime Minister
These remarks come at a time when several Western countries claim to want to reduce their economic dependence on China, in particular Germany for which the country is its first trading partner and a vital market for its powerful automotive sector.
Some American officials are also defending such an idea, in a context of tensions with Beijing. On a visit to China in early July, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, however, felt that a “decoupling” of the US economy from that of China was “virtually impossible”, given its weight for the economy. world. In a world of intertwined economies, this is a “false proposition”, Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang ruled in June.
Bruno Le Maire expected in the “Chinese Silicon Valley”
Bruno Le Maire is in China for the high-level Franco-Chinese economic and financial dialogue, an annual bilateral meeting devoted to these strategic issues. The French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty will travel to Shenzhen on Monday, a large metropolis bordering Hong Kong and considered the “Chinese Silicon Valley”. There he will meet Chinese investors and big bosses, including that of the car manufacturer BYD, which is considering opening an electric vehicle factory in Europe.
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