Opinion | US and EU should welcome Chinese manufacturing, not try to shut it out

It’s a matter of time before Chinese products find their way into the markets anyway – trade barriers achieve very little without industrial policy

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President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) Jens Eskelund at a press conference in Beijing, China, on May 8. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:30pm, 13 Jun 2025Updated: 5:30pm, 13 Jun 2025

In an amazingly short time, China has developed globally leading technology and manufacturing in multiple sectors, including energy storage, electric vehicles (EVs), renewable energy, telecommunications equipment, biotech and more. Many markets want these goods, and China now makes them better and more cheaply than anyone else.

But the unprecedented pace and scale of China’s development in these sectors have also caught many countries off guard, posing a threat to their domestic industries, which are now slower, more expensive and less advanced than what is coming out of China.

Even though these countries also have policies to help home-grown businesses succeed, they fall far short of the scale and effectiveness of China’s industrial policy. And so, many countries, especially in North America and Europe, are doing all they can to keep advanced Chinese products out of their markets.

Trade barriers have gone up, with a moving goalpost of reasons for barring or hindering the sale of Chinese goods in these countries, from national security concerns and intellectual property theft to unfair government subsidies. In some cases, these are valid concerns, but usually the heart of the problem is in the imperative to protect home-grown industries and avoid an overdependence on China.

The result is that some of the most advanced and affordable products are being artificially shut out of markets that would otherwise be buying them. In the past, places like East Berlin and Cuba kept out foreign technology and never developed anything close to a competitor.

Similarly, there are leading car brands from all over the world on American roads, but not Chinese cars, and especially not Chinese EVs, now widely considered the best in the world in terms of driving range, advanced features and pricing.

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