China urges EU to boost cooperation

Explore 'this huge market', Wang says, encouraging well-informed choices

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the European Union to keep to the principles of a market economy and create a level playing field for Chinese companies, including making well-informed choices－backed by independent judgment－on issues relating to 5G technology.

In a speech on Monday evening at the European Policy Center, a Brussels-based think tank, Wang said progress in the negotiations toward a China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment tops the economic agenda.

"China is building an open economy. We welcome European countries to seize the opportunities to scale up investment in China and explore this huge market of 1.4 billion people," he said.

Wang was visiting Brussels to meet with EU officials during a European tour that also took him to Slovenia and Spain, where he attended the 14th Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Madrid.

The trip came about two weeks after the new leaders of the EU's main institutions took office. President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang made separate phone calls with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on further deepening bilateral relations.

Wang said China is pursuing high-quality development of its Belt and Road Initiative and the EU is speeding up the implementation of its strategy on connecting Europe and Asia. "By increasing the link-ups between these endeavors, we will break new ground and unlock new potential for cooperation," he said.

The top Chinese diplomat said China and the EU should be partners for green development, citing the bloc's launch of its European Green Deal last week and China's work to advance the conservation of its ecosystems.

"Green growth, circular economy and renewable energy can well be new growth areas of China-Europe cooperation," Wang said in a talk that was moderated by former Belgian prime minister Herman van Rompuy.

He said that China and the EU should be partners for digital development. "We have respective strengths in high technology, digital economy and the new generation of information technology," Wang said. "Much can be done if we combine our strengths and work together on smart cities, artificial intelligence, data security and technological rules and standards.

"China and the EU should be partners for free trade. Apart from a high-quality investment agreement, we should work for an early start of negotiations on a free-trade agreement, or at least the launch of feasibility studies on that front."

Wang described 2019 as "a productive year for China-EU relations". The two sides concluded negotiations on the Geographical Indications agreement as scheduled, and signed two agreements on aviation cooperation.

He said China and the EU are partners, not rivals, referring to some arguments put forward within the EU that China has become an economic rival of Europe and should be subject to all sorts of restrictions.

"Although (this is) not the mainstream view, we must raise our vigilance and not allow it to go unchecked," he said, adding that any cool-headed person with an objective view will see that cooperation between China and the EU far outweighs competition and their areas of consensus far exceed any count of their differences.

The EU is China's largest trade partner and China is the EU's second-largest trade partner, trailing the United States.

According to Wang, Europe has benefited a lot from cooperation with China. Between 2001 and 2018, the EU's exports to China grew by 14.7 percent annually, more than twice the bloc's average export growth. And the EU's exports to China support some 4 million jobs in Europe.

In addition, Chinese companies have made foreign direct investments in 2,900 ventures in EU member states, creating 176,000 jobs for the local populations.