00:00Ambassador Fei, great to have you.
00:02Thank you. Thank you for having me.
00:04Earlier this month, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi
00:07paid a visit to Belgium
00:09and he met Belgian Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister
00:12before he met the key leaders from the European Union.
00:16What do you think was the significance of this high-level exchange?
00:21I think the meetings with the Prime Minister of Belgium
00:26and the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Belgium
00:29were all very important because actually these were meetings
00:33for the first time ever since the new government of Belgium took office.
00:39And I believe that many know that this has been a historical relationship
00:44for many, many centuries and many, many decades
00:47since the founding of the People's Republic.
00:50Our two countries, China and Belgium, established diplomatic ties back in 1971.
00:58Even four years earlier than China-EU relations.
01:02So that this is an important relationship and such kind of high-level exchanges
01:08are very important in building trust and promoting cooperation
01:14and furthering the friendship between the two nations.
01:18And also, this certainly will have a very important role to play
01:23to further promote the relations between China and EU as a whole.
01:28Belgium has a unique position and location
01:31because it is actually a thoroughfare connecting the east and west of Europe
01:38and the north and south of Europe.
01:40So you can see all the neighbouring countries and its connectivity to all parts of Europe.
01:46That's why it has been chosen as the heart of Europe
01:49and many important EU institutions are located here in Brussels.
01:55And so I think that it has a unique role to play.
01:59Let's talk about the bigger picture between China and the European Union.
02:03And this year is the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.
02:08The EU leaders now are in Beijing for the China-EU summit.
02:12What can we expect from the summit?
02:15I think China-EU do have a very important relationship.
02:20This relationship has been long and historical.
02:23And as Chinese President Xi Jinping rightly said,
02:27that China and the EU are actually two major forces for an autopolar world
02:35and two major markets supporting globalisation
02:38and also two major civilisations in support of diversity.
02:43And all these core principles and values are important,
02:48not only for China and the European Union,
02:51but also for humanity in a sense.
02:54So I believe that the high-level exchanges do have an important role to play
03:00to further strengthening the communication and cooperation between China and EU
03:06and also contributing to peace, stability and development in today's world.
03:14As many would agree that we live in a more uncertain and volatile world.
03:21But in these circumstances of increasing instability and uncertainty,
03:27it has become all the more important for China and the European Union
03:32to provide more stability and certainty in this world in terms of peace,
03:39in terms of stability and in terms of growth.
03:43The European Union and China, they do have their common ground.
03:46In the meantime, they do have their frictions, we have to say.
03:49And for some time, the European Union has criticised China's trade policies,
03:53including market access and export controls and a huge trade deficit.
03:59And the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned of,
04:03I'm quoting her, a new China shock citing industrial overcapacity.
04:08What's your response to it?
04:10As we said, this is an important relationship,
04:13and this is also a comprehensive relationship,
04:16which means that we have political exchanges,
04:19we have economic cooperation, we have trade in large volumes.
04:24It's not about hundreds of millions, but billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars.
04:31So it's huge.
04:33And also it covers culture, it covers people-to-people exchanges.
04:38It's such a very closely connected relationship.
04:42It's only natural that sometimes people may not see eye-to-eye on each and every issue.
04:49And the more you engage with each other, the more trouble,
04:54the more problems you may find in your exchanges.
04:57It's only natural.
04:59What is important is not to define the relationship by how much we disagree
05:06or how many problems we have found.
05:09Of course, we bear in mind the challenges we have and the problems we may find.
05:14More importantly, we need to define the relationship by the long-term feature of the relationship,
05:21that is cooperation, that is partnership.
05:24As long as we see each other as cooperation partners,
05:29there is always a way for us to take seriously the disagreements we may have,
05:35the problems we may find,
05:37and we may both be in a better position to address the differences and the problems we may have.
05:44Regardless, the EU is still following a strategy of de-risking from China.
05:49Do you think de-risking ultimately will lead to decoupling?
05:54As you also mentioned, there are all kinds of accusations made against China,
05:59and probably similar complaints would be made by Chinese people or Chinese businesses
06:06against some of the practices elsewhere.
06:09So I think that it's natural people may have different opinions,
06:12but I don't think any particular word or phrase would be sufficient
06:20to define this cooperative partnership.
06:24And what is important is to really discuss the real issues.
06:29As for some of the notions you have mentioned made by others, like overcapacity or others,
06:37I think that we need to take a fair perspective in terms of overcapacity.
06:43What does it mean exactly?
06:45Does it mean that as long as you produce more than you can consume yourself,
06:50then you have overcapacity?
06:52If that is the case, then there will be no international trade at all.
06:57Because we may see that even in Europe,
07:01I think that about 80% of German cars are built for exports.
07:09It's not for German use and not even just for the European use.
07:13And the same may be applied to Japan and also for American chips.
07:19many, many commodities.
07:21So we have to take a fair perspective and to see that whether there is real overcapacity
07:29and where it does exist.
07:31And we should not discriminate from country to country in terms of trade and capacity.
07:39As a matter of fact, when people talk about green development, which is still important,
07:44and which is still an area where China and EU have much common ground,
07:49there is not an overcapacity but undercapacity at the moment.
07:55And why do you think the EU is so concerned about overcapacity from China then?
08:00I wouldn't guess why they have this concern.
08:05I think that, of course, each and every country may have its reasonable or legitimate concerns.
08:12What is important is to see clearly whether these concerns are really fact-based,
08:19based on facts and the reality,
08:22and whether they are really serious in seeking a solution to the concerns they may have.
08:29Chinese businesses may have their concerns.
08:32European businesses may have their concerns.
08:35It's important for the business communities, for the government institutions,
08:39to talk to each other, to have more communication,
08:42and work together to try to find solutions together.
08:46That also makes the upcoming China-EU leaders' meeting all the more important.
08:51And do you think it carries more weight given that Donald Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on the world?
08:58I don't think that that is a particular approach,
09:01very much well received or much welcomed by the rest of the world.
09:06But, of course, we know that no one would like to be dictated by others,
09:12still less than the major countries in this world.
09:16But what we can do is we try to figure out what is at the stake and what we can do together.
09:24As one of the European leaders said, that probably, yes, the United States is very important, no doubt.
09:33It counts about 13 to 15 percent of the world's economy or trade.
09:38But we still have about 83 to 85 percent of trade that we have among ourselves.
09:46So what is important is for us to not to go astray as others may,
09:52but try to focus on the right thing to do and try to see what we can do together
09:58to continue to promote multilateralism, to promote free trade within the WTO framework.
10:07And probably if we keep doing the right thing through the right communication and cooperation,
10:13we will be able to really make a difference for ourselves together and for the world.
10:19And do you think the WTO framework has been undermined?
10:23The WTO framework for various reasons have been challenged.
10:28It's not something new. It's been for years.
10:31But I think despite all the challenges, it's still a consensus by many in the international community
10:38to have the WTO framework respected and complied with.
10:44Otherwise, in the field of trade, we would be going back to the jungle.
10:49But first, if it comes up sometimes, that's not what we want to move to really,
10:54we would start to look like our single foundations.
10:56And we don't see here relationships with.
10:57So let's do it.
10:59And walk away at the bottom, never do it in the championship level.
11:00We take back a screenshot of our Hindu territory down the top.
11:01Let's do that and a double-group round.
11:02And then we will景 down the top of the green
11:09and nycadpiece being the table.
11:11If that happens, you have to take the floor right and the top of the opposite of the technology.
11:15Well, that's just the okay – that's why same fat teaspoons,
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