'..China’s revising up of the death toll last week was “alarming,” while French President Emmanuel Macron said in an FT interview there were “clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about.” U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it can’t be “business as usual” with China once the pandemic is over.''..curb dependence on China, not just for medical supplies but in areas such as battery technology for electric vehicles. EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said last week there’s a need for a discussion “on what it means to be strategically autonomous,” including building “resilient supply chains, based on diversification, acknowledging the simple fact that we will not be able to manufacture everything locally.” Japan already earmarked $2.2 billion from its $1 trillion stimulus package to help its manufacturers shift production away from China.
..
..According to another European official, even official [Chinese] suppliers were breaking contracts for items such as ventilators and scamming people, burning bridges along the way. “People want to have their eggs in more baskets,” said Wuttke.
Certainly, the tenor of the political debate in Europe has shifted since. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper that China’s revising up of the death toll last week was “alarming,” while French President Emmanuel Macron said in an FT interview there were “clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about.” U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it can’t be “business as usual” with China once the pandemic is over.'
- Bloomberg,
China’s Coronavirus Diplomacy Has Finally Pushed Europe Too Far, April 21, 2020
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