A former Chinese commerce official said Friday that the economic and trade relations between China and the European Union (EU) is at a crucial moment amid global uncertainties.
Wei Jianguo, former Chinese vice commerce minister and now vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), told Xinhua that the two sides should not view each other as competitors, but partners.
The CCIEE organized a group of leading scholars from China to take a tour in Europe, visiting Brussels, Geneva and Berlin, where they discussed with their European counterparts about the economic and trade relations among China, EU and the United States.
"The EU is the biggest single market and China is the biggest trader. The cooperation between the two sides can address a lot of issues, including making rules for international economy and trade system," said Wei.
Wei said he believes that China and the EU could do more in safeguarding a rule-based multilateral trade system, including WTO and UN reforms, within the Belt and Road Initiative, through the cooperation in the third-party market, and also in the fields of new industries.
"Amid global uncertainties, it is much more important to make a trustful friend and trading partner than to develop a big market," said Wei.
Wei said he found that European experts have many misunderstandings of China, including China's industry strategy, state-owned enterprises, the government's role in the economy, among others.
During the tour, CCIEE held various seminars with European experts, explaining China's policies on those issues, with which the Europeans are concerned.
Wei said European think-tanks are eager to communicate with Chinese think-tanks, and they expect to hold regular and in-depth discussions with Chinese experts.
"Maybe we exchanged ideas too little in the past. We should do more, in a bid to dispel Europeans' misunderstanding, especially at the time when globalization is in trouble so as to benefit both China and the world multilateral system," said Wei.
