Chinese Premier Li Qiang slammed efforts in the West to "de-risk" their economies as a "false proposition" on Tuesday, hitting back against US and EU policy aimed at reducing their reliance on China.
The United States and the European Union have in recent months moved to "de-risk" from the world's second-largest economy.
"In the West, some people are hyping up what is called 'cutting reliance and de-risking'," Li told delegates at the opening of a World Economic Forum meeting in northern China.
"These two concepts... are a false proposition, because the development of economic globalisation is such that the world economy has become a common entity in which you and I are both intermingled," he said in a wide-ranging speech calling for deepening economic globalisation and cooperation.
WATCH: China’s Premier Li Qiang warns against global fragmentation in his opening address to the World Economic Forum in Tianjin.
— Bloomberg (@business) June 27, 2023
Li blasted western efforts to remove China from supply chains: https://t.co/bRir7Uhg8j pic.twitter.com/QYJzDXC4Qi
"The economies of many countries are blended with each other, rely on each other, make accomplishments because of one another, and develop together," he added.
"This is actually a good thing, not a bad thing."
'Summer Davos'
This week's meeting of the World Economic Forum in the port city of Tianjin, known colloquially as the "Summer Davos," is the first of its kind after a three-year hiatus caused by the Covid pandemic. It will last until Thursday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in January described the EU's approach to China as "de-risking rather than decoupling" since the bloc still sought to work and trade with Beijing.
In the 2019 EU-China Strategic Outlook, Brussels for the first time called Beijing a "systemic rival."
Since then, things have gone downhill with both sides lashing out at each other with sanctions following increasing European criticism over China's human rights situation, resulting in the EU cancelling a major investment deal in early 2021.
President Joe Biden has also maintained former leader Donald Trump's hard line on China, and in some areas gone further, including banning exports of high-end semiconductors to the rising power.
Responding to Beijing's heated criticism of the move, Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing last week insisted that the United States was not seeking "economic containment" of China.
"But at the same time," he said, "it's not in our interest to provide technology to China that could be used against us."
Paris is also worried. The French government's 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy points out that "China’s power is increasing, and its territorial claims are expressed with greater and greater strength," warning that this "concerns freedom of navigation in international straits" and warning China against challenging "international law through the use of force."
(With newswires)
