Despite the predictions of the Western media according to which the Chinese economy is beginning to show «worrying symptoms of slowdown,» the first balance sheet figures for the year 2023 show investment in fixed assets has had a year-on-year growth of 3%, the added value of industrial production has grown by 4.6%, sales of consumer goods have increased by 7.2%. These global data show a strengthening of the internal market in China much greater than that of the OECD countries whose leaders seem to live in a parallel reality.
In regard to Foreign Trade, according to Bankinter, the Chinese trade surplus in 2023 as a whole amounts to 878 Bn$, a historical maximum quite far from the 150 + 150 Bn$ per year that it had with the USA + EU in the previous decade. According to the same source, exports slow down -9.9% (decrease in demand at a global level) and Imports also, but less: -7.5%, which seems to be «good news» for Western media. , who logically should be more interested in how to sell products to China, instead of rejoicing at the «contraction» of their International Trade. The EU remains committed to its suicidal policy of commercially isolating China, the only consequence of which is the progressive irrelevance of its economic role in International Trade.
About restrictions of Intl Trade
Domestic consumption of microchips in China has almost the 50% of the worñd production. Constraints imposed by the US have no sense. The largest customer of the Netherlands for litogtaphy is China. The largest market for Taiwan and South Korea is again China. When, some of largest US firms assemble their products in China, the US policy is mainly addressed as a pressure for EU countries, for lowering their dependence with respect to the Chinese industry. The subordination of EU to the strategic interests of the USA is the path to an increasing irrelevance of the EU. In a mutually interconnected world where China has the first place in most technological areas (37 of 44) it is not a smart policy promote an impossible and unrealsitic isolation. The EU must have its own policy focused towards mutual collaboration.