Diplomatic mission condemns raids on Dutch and Polish places of work of Chinese language firm Nuctech.
China has expressed “grave concern” over raids carried out by European officers on a Chinese language firm that manufactures safety tools.
EU competitors regulators on Tuesday raided places of work of Chinese language firm Nuctech within the Netherlands and Poland as a part of a probe into unfair state subsidies.
In a press release on Thursday, China’s mission to the EU mentioned it deplored the “unannounced inspections” and criticised Brussels for not elevating its considerations with the corporate or Chinese language authorities straight.
“The Chinese language aspect believes that the EU’s unannounced inspections interferes with the order of truthful competitors available in the market, clearly jeopardises the constructive ambiance of commerce and financial cooperation between China and the EU, and strikes a robust shock to the arrogance and sense of safety of all overseas corporations within the EU, together with Chinese language ones,” the mission mentioned.
“It additionally highlights the additional deterioration of the EU’s enterprise atmosphere and sends a particularly detrimental sign to all overseas corporations working within the EU. Protectionism can not carry prosperity, and suppressing others will solely weaken competitiveness of 1’s personal.”
The EU ought to “abide by its dedication to open market and the ideas of a stage taking part in area, and cease utilizing every kind of excuses to unreasonably suppress and impede the Chinese language corporations,” the mission added, expressing hopes for cooperation and exchanges in an “open, truthful and equitable manner”.
Our Mission is gravely involved over and deplores EU’s unannounced inspections of a Chinese language firm. #China urges the #EU to honor its commitments to open markets and the ideas of truthful competitors, and to stop utilizing numerous pretexts to unjustifiably suppress and hinder 🇨🇳… pic.twitter.com/al1889hJuw
— Mission of China to the EU (@ChinaEUMission) April 24, 2024
The remarks come after the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU (CCCEU) on Wednesday expressed “critical concern” over the raids.
“The European aspect manifested its intention to weaponise the International Subsidies Regulation as a device to suppress lawfully working Chinese language corporations in Europe,” the chamber mentioned in a press release.
“The CCCEU expresses its sturdy dissatisfaction with the European aspect’s raids on corporations arrange by Chinese language enterprise within the EU with out prior discover and with out stable proof.”
Nuctech, which manufactures scanning tools for airports and border crossings, has mentioned it’s cooperating with authorities and dedicated to “defending its popularity of a totally unbiased and self-supporting financial operator”.
The European Fee mentioned it carried out the raids as a “preliminary investigative step” after receiving indications that an unnamed firm could have acquired overseas subsidies that might distort the market.
The raids had been the primary such motion taken by the fee because it adopted the International Subsidies Regulation in July final yr amid considerations about market distortions attributable to overseas subsidies.
