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FM Szijjártó: This would be brutal economic suicide
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Cutting Europe-China ties would equal Europe’s “brutal economic suicide”, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday, insisting that the bloc’s competitiveness had “plummeted in recent years for numerous reasons”.
The ministry cited Szijjártó as telling a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin that “connectivity is good and the re-forming of blocks in the world is bad”, adding that this precept was the starting point for the government’s policy in terms of economic ties between Europe and China.
Judging from various trends, several European countries view China as a risk or a threat, he said. Contrary to this, Hungary believes that cooperation with China could bring about “tremendous results”, he added.
“It is in Europe’s interest to cooperate with China on the basis of mutual respect and interests,” he said.
Hungary sees “great opportunity” in the division of labour between East and West and the only way to improve European competitiveness, he added.
For decades, the basis for predictable economic growth was the combination of developed western technologies with easily accessible and relatively cheap energy from the East, he said. However, this is not the case anymore, noting lost European-Russian links owing to the war in Ukraine, he added.
“If we were to cut European-Chinese ties on top of that, it will be a blow to the European economy,” he said, noting that EU-China trade totalled EUR 865 billion.
“Europe only stands to lose if we view China as a rival rather than as a partner for cooperation,” he said.
The renewal of Europe’s crucial car making industry, he noted, required batteries, adding that “in this field they have become totally dependent on eastern, especially Chinese companies.”
Oh, Peter, you are so, so wrong. We are making the same mistake with China that we made with Russia. China is every bit as unreliable a “partner” as Russia. On Russia we depended for energy supplies; China we depend on for everything. We had plenty of warning with Russia but we (we = Europe) buried our heads in the sand and then the we-know-what hit the fan, throwing our economies and quality of life into freefall. We have plenty of warning with China but we’re also stupidly ignoring it. We all know China is going to invade Taiwan and we all know we’re going to have to impose sanctions, etc. on China. And if you think the energy crisis has been bad, how much worse do you reckon losing access to everything from our toothbrushes, to our toys, to our electronics, to our vehicle components, to our tools, to our clothes, to much of our furniture is going to be?! WHAT are we thinking!?
This is why Mr. Szijjártó is a Politician and not an EU trade agreement negotiator …
https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/index_en
Ask our United Kingdom friends how effective this department is … Or compare the UK’s New Zealand trade deal with the EU’s … Very situational, much different results!
Michael Steiner you are right, These facts are ignored all over Europe by many for decades. Sadly, this government believes in a strong Chinese presence in Hungary instead of building up an independent Hungarian industry. We (Europeans) have to build our own independed industry back to what it was before a political and financial elite gave our faith in the hands of communist China. Also, the power base communist China is building in Hungary by huge “investments” and large scale Chinese immigration into Hungary. Chinese immigrants, who are and will be buying everything of value. Even on the markets, they slowly take over. They will gain more (political) power as times goes by. Hungarians in the future will curse everyone who made this possible and weakening us Hungarians by creating a powerful new foreign (Chinese) minority. Nothing was learned from our history!