Deeper Sino-EU cooperation urged

China and the EU are each other's second-largest trading partners, with two-way goods trade exceeding $800 billion last year.

China recorded a $48.3 billion deficit in services trade with the EU in 2025, with the bloc emerging as the largest source of China's services trade deficit, accounting for 41.6 percent of the total.

On June 7, the Ministry of Commerce launched its first overseas event under the "Big Market for All: Export to China" initiative in Belarus, followed by the EU's inaugural event in Germany on June 11. The events were designed to build bridges for global businesses to expand exports to China and share in the world's second-largest consumer market.

By bringing the campaign to Europe at a moment when Brussels is rolling out a series of protectionist measures, Beijing is making it clear to businesses across the continent and beyond that "regardless of how the global landscape shifts, China's door will only open wider," said Wang, head of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

"With 100-plus events this year, we are turning 'China opportunities' into actual contracts," Wang said."This is not just a policy statement. It's a practical mechanism with actionable steps, especially for smaller businesses that have struggled to enter the Chinese market on their own."

The EU's "de-risking" approach, if pushed too far, risks unraveling decades of economic integration that has benefited both sides, experts said.

"We need to seek truth from facts," said Ondrej Dostal, a member of the European Parliament. "I see the relationship between the EU and China not as strategic rivalry, but as practical cooperation."

He has advocated for synergizing the Belt and Road Initiative with the EU's Global Gateway project to promote shared prosperity, as well as fostering cooperation in areas such as artificial intelligence, healthcare and green energy.

Experts argue that forced decoupling would be costly and ineffective. Chinese suppliers offer not just lower costs, but scale, technical capability, logistics networks and processing infrastructure that alternatives cannot quickly match.

Cui Fan, a professor of international trade at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said that interdependence is not a one-way dependency, but a web of mutual benefit where both sides have genuine stakes in each other's prosperity.

When Chinese companies invest in Europe, they create jobs, bring technical expertise and support the bloc's green transition, Cui said, adding that when EU firms operate in China, they tap into scale, supply chain depth and a fast-moving innovation ecosystem.

"The relationship is not about who needs whom more, but about where the points of convergence lie and how to expand them," Cui said."Both sides can upgrade from a simple 'buy-sell' relationship to deep integration in joint R&D, standard setting and market sharing."

As global economic uncertainty intensifies, China's combination of continuous openness, massive market scale, and innovation capacity is offering multinational companies a predictable and rewarding business climate that increasingly shapes their long-term commitment in the world's second-largest economy, said business leaders.

Ola Kallenius, chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, noted that "China is a crucial innovation hub, especially in fields of electrification and intelligence. We are accelerating the next level of localization in China, tapping even more into the potential of its unique local ecosystem."

wangkeju@chinadaily.com.cn