China Daily Editorial
Exports to China made up 6.2 percent of Germany’s total exports in the first half of this year, their lowest share since 2016. Some are attributing this to the weakening of the Chinese economy, saying that this has reduced its demand for exports from Germany.
Others suggest otherwise. They believe that China is increasingly able to produce goods it previously bought from Germany, which is weighing on Germany’s exports. As trade expert Vincent Stamer of Kiel Institute for the World Economy said, China is climbing up the technological ladder, and with its growing technological progress, the country is able to create an increasing percentage of the value added itself.
The fact that many in Germany worry that the weaker demand from China has had a strong impact on the German manufacturing sector speaks volumes about how trade relations have been undergoing a structural change in the past two decades with China’s technological leap forward.
But despite that, the reality remains unchanged. China continues to become increasingly interconnected with the world as a major industrial manufacturing country and an important link in the global industry and supply chains. The country is the backbone for the global energy transition, for instance, which would be impossible without its exports of some critical raw materials and solar panels.
What is hindering the development of the world economy is the stranglehold some Western countries have on the exports of key technologies in some fields. Such an approach is meant to slow down the development of the Chinese economy, especially the upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry, as these countries fear that China’s rise poses a threat to their development.
The restrictions on exports of key technologies will undoubtedly make things hard for China’s manufacturing industry, but the country is striving to make breakthroughs in developing these technologies that are urgently needed for the upgrading of its manufacturing industry.
But even after those breakthroughs are made, the country will not cut itself off from the rest of the world. China knows that it still has a lot to learn from developed countries, and even if it attains a higher status on the technological ladder in the near future, it will remain open and inclusive, which it believes will help address the common challenges facing humanity and make the world a better place.
It is natural that the composition of China’s imports should change as it develops and that the West’s stranglehold on key technologies should have spillover effects. China’s imports are a dynamic response process to its needs. They are neither due to the weakness of its economy nor because it’s closing its doors.
– Courtesy of China Daily
