Image: Aly Song/Reuters
The coronavirus has disrupted supply chains and demand across the global economy, but it is the prospect of Europe becoming a casualty in the US-China tech war that keeps the president of the European Chamber in China “awake at night”.
He was due to attend the launch of a confidence survey from the chamber’s south China chapter in Guangzhou, but stayed away due to the re-emergence of coronavirus in the capital.
The US is at war with China over 5G technology
The move effectively banned US firms from doing business with the world’s largest telecommunications network gear maker and escalated a trade battle between the world’s two biggest economies.
Wuttke said that despite years of lobbying, European businesses continue to face an unfair playing field in China, also in emerging tech fields like 5G.
They can’t really compete here, which of course gives you a very, very big disadvantage, because China is 50% of the possible 5G market
The south China business confidence survey found little appetite for its members to leave the region, where they enjoy close access to manufacturing supply chains, with 88% saying they had no plans to relocate in the next three years.
