Beijing Expresses Deep Concern Over EU Trade Investigation

Beijing expressed deep concern about the trade investigation launched by the European Union regarding Chinese electric cars and other products.

Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said he feels:

“extremely displeased with this investigation, which lacks a realistic basis”

during a meeting with European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, according to a statement released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday.

Wang’s comment coincides with the announcement by “EY,” a management consulting company, on Tuesday, revealing a decrease in the number of Chinese companies acquiring European companies to the lowest level since 2012.

A new analysis conducted by EY revealed that Chinese investors bought a total of 119 companies in Europe last year. This was 20 fewer acquisitions compared to the previous year and 200 fewer than the record number of acquisitions in 2016.

According to estimates by “AI Ways”, investor money also shrank significantly. In 2023, it reached $2 billion, which is less than half compared to 2022… However, “AI Ways” emphasized that the purchase prices for the majority of Chinese acquisitions and investments in Europe are unknown.

At the height of Chinese investment boom in 2016, which was short-lived, EY estimated that Chinese investors spent around $86 billion on company acquisitions in Europe. Since the shift in 2017, the number of company acquisitions and the amounts invested have been steadily declining.

On the other hand, the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said in a statement on its website on Tuesday that local governments in China must enhance the balance between supply and demand in the real estate market.

The statement mentioned that all cities must carefully study the demand for housing, improve housing supply, and prevent large fluctuations in the real estate market.

On Monday, the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang urged local policymakers to remove restrictions that threaten fair competition in the market and take necessary steps to build a unified national market.

During his presidency, he called for a session of a study group affiliated with the State Council (the Chinese government) to urge authorities to remove all barriers, whether explicit or implicit, that hinder access to local markets between Chinese provinces.

He said that it is on policymakers to continue dealing with other related issues, such as local protectionism and market segmentation in order to establish a unified market.

Bloomberg quoted Lee as saying that it is up to local governments to encourage the establishment of a unified market “step by step,” pledging that policymakers will deepen reforms in financial and tax systems to support this goal.

“Bloomberg” mentioned that Li’s statements reinforce similar comments from the Chinese authorities in recent months regarding the establishment of a unified national market, including the removal of local protectionist restrictions, with the setting of unified rules and standards to be applied uniformly across the country to increase market efficiency.

In the markets, Chinese stocks rose on Tuesday, led by artificial intelligence companies benefiting from the AI boom in the United States, while investors await further political signals from the upcoming parliamentary meeting in Beijing.

The CSI 300 index of leading stocks in China closed up by 1.2 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose by 1.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong also increased by 0.9 percent, and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index added 1.5 percent.