Chinese Ambassador to Sweden Zhou Limin Publishes a Signed Article Titled 'Protectionism Leads to Backwardness, Cooperation Drives Development' on Swedish Media

On June 22, 2026, Ambassador Zhou Limin published a signed article titled "Protectionism Leads to Backwardness, Cooperation Drives Development" on Nya Dagbladet and The Nordic Times. The full text is as follows:

Recently, the European Union has introduced a series of protectionist trade and economic restrictions, describing its trade and investment relationship with China as "not sustainable", advancing its agenda of "de-risking" and reducing dependencies, and exploring new policy tools aimed at addressing its so-called "trade imbalances". The future of China-EU economic and trade relations has become a focus of international attention.

China has always maintained that the essence of China-EU economic and trade relations lies in complementarity and mutual benefit. Issues arising in bilateral cooperation should be addressed by making the pie bigger, with dynamic equilibrium achieved through development.

China has always upheld openness and cooperation, and pursued common security rather than absolute security. In fact, China is highly dependent on the EU for a far greater number of products than the EU is on China. German vehicles enjoy a significant share of the Chinese market, and European-made medical equipment is widely used in Chinese hospitals, yet China has never regarded it as a risk.

In recent years, China has adopted a variety of measures to expand imports from Europe. These include continuously easing market access, hosting a series of flagship events such as "Export to China" and "Invest in China", and organizing thematic and sector-specific matchmaking events for EU member states. These efforts are aimed at promoting an upward balance in bilateral trade.

China has always welcomed foreign investment and has long given super-national treatment to foreign-invested enterprises, including European companies. Despite the EU's long-standing surplus in services trade with China, China continues to expand opening up with a focus on the services sector and further shorten the negative list for foreign investment. This fully demonstrates China's commitment to deepening industrial cooperation with the EU and its goodwill in pursuing shared development by leveraging their respective comparative advantages.

Over the next five years, China's high-quality development and high-standard opening-up will continue to generate development dividends and unlock cooperation potential. By 2030, China's annual imports of goods are expected to exceed 3.5 trillion US dollars, offering fresh opportunities for enterprises from Europe and beyond. China stands ready to work with the EU in the same direction, act in the spirit of mutual respect, seek common ground while reserving differences, and join hands to build a brighter future for China-EU relations.