China's predatory trade practices

European companies should not be compelled to transfer technology in order to gain access to the Chinese market, said Nicolas Chapuis, ambassador of the EU delegation to China.
By Huileng Tan

The European Union has a vested interest in promoting technology exchanges with China, but any transfers should be regulated, said the trade bloc's ambassador to China on Wednesday.
"For the last 40 years, EU companies have provided most of the foreign tech that is in China, about 50 percent of what is today in China," said Nicolas Chapuis, ambassador of the EU delegation to China.
However, the diplomat expressed concerns about China trading market access for technology.
Beijing forces foreign companies to hand over their technological know-how in exchange for access to its massive domestic market. 

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded that China cease forced tech transfers, which have become a flashpoint in the U.S.-China trade war.
"This has to stop or to be regulated," Chapuis told CNBC at the European Chamber Annual Conference 2018 in Beijing.
"Of course if a company wants to open its tech books to a Chinese company — all right, that's not an issue, but it has to be regulated so that there is no so-called 'forced tech transfer,'" Chapuis said.
Beijing has claimed it will step up protection of intellectual property rights, but experts point out that China wields its state-controlled legal system to take whatever trade secrets it wants for its own companies.
Chapuis said he is confident that China will be able to keep to its reform plans, but Beijing needs to ensure a consistent and unified countrywide approach to enforcing these regulations. 

He said he was optimistic that the plans will eventually play out as Beijing knows that such reforms are crucial to future growth.
The EU envoy also said that the EU is supportive of all foreign direct investments that will benefit the region.
"We believe in an open economy, we believe in globalization, but we need to make sure that these investments are conducive to growth, and not be a way to capture technology and to close down factories," Chapuis said.
"What we want are long-term investment strategies that create jobs (and) growth. We also have to take into account the criticism of globalization, which is growing in Europe as elsewhere in the world."
"So we need to make sure that this money flowing into Europe is perceived as a good thing and not as a bad thing," he added.

“Don't listen to what Xi Jinping says, but look at what he does

The EU Calls on Xi Jinping to Put His Words into Action
Reuters

The European Union urged China on Wednesday to make "concrete progress" in opening its markets to global investment, after Xi Jinping decried protectionism in a speech at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"A speech is a speech and actions are actions," said Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, EU Ambassador to China, adding that he would be "surprised" if Xi was able to translate words into action.
At Davos last week, Xi called for "inclusive globalization" and for global unity, saying "self-isolation will benefit no-one," two days before the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
During that week, China's cabinet issued measures to further open the economy to foreign investment, including easing limits on investment in banks and other financial institutions.
No further details were provided, nor a timetable for their implementation.
So far, the EU has not seen "sufficient signs that China will be willing to grant reciprocity of market access to European companies," Schweisgut told reporters in Beijing.
In June 2016, the European Chamber of Commerce in China warned that foreign companies face an increasingly hostile environment in China, with fewer than half its members saying they planned to expand operations in the world's second-largest economy.
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, Trump's choice for commerce secretary, has called China the "most protectionist" country in the world, and said China's officials "talk much more about free trade than they actually practice."
Trump has previously criticized China's trade practices and threatened to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese imports.
China has said it is confident it can resolve trade disputes with the new U.S. government, though some state media and government advisors have warned that U.S. aircraft manufacturers, automobile companies and agricultural products could be caught in the cross-fire of increased trade tensions.
When asked whether Europe saw any opportunities in China's warnings of punitive measures against the U.S., Schweisgut said this was "interesting speculation" but that he did not know enough about Trump's trade policy plans to comment.