The European Chamber of Commerce said in its de-risking report that companies were “skewed disproportionately towards risk management and building resilience” because of the COVID pandemic, global economic slowdown, Ukraine war and U.S.-China geopolitical competition.
“China has a rational self-interest in ensuring that there is a workable commercial relationship with Europe going forward. And that, frankly, is put at risk right now,” Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, said.
“I think there is a risk that Europe feels compelled to react in more protective ways.”
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Eskelund is literally saying that this is an issue with Europeans and US, that China wants a good relationship with Europe. I don’t get where you draw your conclusions.
No, what he is saying is “We don’t like that Europeans care so much about things like reliability and moral concerns, it is getting in the way of making a profit over here in China and thus getting in the way of my career as the president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China”.
President Eskelund, who has lived and worked in China for 25 years, is chief representative for Maersk in Greater China and Northeast Asia. He has served two terms as vice president of the European Chamber—from 2019 to 2021 and from October 2022 to May 2023—as well as State Representative, and has also been actively involved with the Chamber’s working groups since the Chamber’s inception, including as chairman of the International Liner Shipping Sub-working Group (formerly the Maritime Working Group). He has also served as both board member and chairman of the Danish Chamber of Commerce in China.
What this have to do with morals? European companies do business with Saudi Arabia and Israel and only stopped to do with Russia because they aren’t allowed to do.
All of this discussion is about risk management of possible crisis and he disagree with the risk seen by Europeans companies.
And maybe the fact he is the president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China should be seen as a plus in considering his opinion. You are baseless imputing conflict of interests to say we should ignore a specialist in the matter cause (inserts meme of trump saying “CHINA”)
If you followed the news in recent months you would know about the European efforts about ensuring supply chains do not involve exploitation or other morally objectionable practices. These represent compliance risks to companies working with countries like China. It would be naive to assume that a statement like his about risks has nothing to do with that.
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