From the huge consumer market, to the sustained and stable epidemic prevention and control, to the growing trade between China and many European countries, the Chinese economy has brought confidence and opportunities to European businesses. With China's firm commitment and actions to open its door wider to the outside world, the European business community has not changed its original aspiration towards the Chinese market, but has also accelerated cooperation.

The huge market makes European enterprises salivate

Founded in 1898, London Rebert company is a veritable "century-old shop" in Britain, mainly producing watch accessories and luxury goods such as fine leather goods. Due to the impact of the epidemic and the transformation of e-commerce sales, the company is determined to further increase its investment in the Chinese market.

"Even in 2020, when the world was hit hard by the pandemic, China's luxury market saw significant growth." Oliver Laporte, chief executive of London-based Rebbert, said the company had focused more on the Chinese market over the past six months, hoping to study and understand Chinese consumer habits and retail trends.

Laporte said that China will become the world's largest luxury goods market by 2025, so the company is long-term optimistic about the Chinese market and is committed to being part of the rapid growth in China.

Similarly, Swiss chocolate company Leddry's sales in China exceeded its "wildest expectations" because of the country's huge market and spending power. When the Swiss chocolate industry was hit hard by the pandemic, Johannes Radlach, CHIEF executive of Ledri, realised "it was time to expand beyond Switzerland and head east".

"We started online on Tmall a year ago and worked with a Chinese team. Sales exceeded our wildest expectations." Radlach said.

Mintel, a leading Market research agency in the UK, is dedicated to studying consumer markets around the world, especially in the post-pandemic era, and they are actively tracking consumer attitudes and consumer confidence. The company released global Food and Beverage Trends 2030 during the 2020 Shanghai Import Expo. Matthew Nelson, managing director for Asia Pacific, said: "The data confirm our positive view of China's economy and growth potential."

Finding 'a sense of home' in China

According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce, China actually used 859.51 billion yuan of foreign investment in the first nine months of this year, up 19.6% year on year, maintaining double-digit growth and highlighting that China remains one of the world's best investment destinations.

"Zf feels at home in China, and we have the ability to deploy and develop a complete system in China," said Jens Scheidler, chief executive of German auto parts maker ZF.

'China is the world's largest market for passenger cars and trucks,' Mr. Shaidler said. China is also the world's largest market for alternative energy, as well as electric cars and other solutions. "I think China is at the forefront in many areas and ZF will provide solutions in China to serve the world."

BMW Group, a well-known German automobile company, has established the largest R&D system in China outside of Germany and is rapidly expanding its cooperation with outstanding Chinese technology enterprises. Currently, BMW's R&D system in China includes 3 r&d centers. This year, BMW will set up a technology joint venture in China that will specialize in automotive software development, further integrating into the country's digital ecosystem.

In July, European aircraft manufacturing giant Airbus announced the opening of the A350 program at airbus Tianjin Wide-body Completion and Delivery Center, with the delivery of its first A350 aircraft to China Eastern Aviation Group Co LTD. It is also the first Airbus A350 to be delivered in China.

Chief Executive Guillaume Foley said China's strong economic momentum creates opportunities for aviation cooperation.

The "decoupling plot" unraveled

From the bilateral trade data of many European countries with China in the first half of this year to the tracking report released by a top British think tank that exposes the truth of "decoupling", a series of data clearly show that China's trade with Europe and the rest of the world is closely linked and warming up.

Italy's exports to China grew 48.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2021, outpacing Italy's other major trading partners, according to the National Statistics Institute.

Statistics released by the Office for National Statistics show that China-UK trade maintained a good momentum in the first half of this year, with China overtaking Germany to become the UK's largest single source of goods imports in the first quarter.

According to statistics from eurostat, China remained the EU's largest trading partner in the first half of this year.

In August, Oxford Economics, a British economic think tank, released a report titled "What 'decoupling'? China's global market share is soaring", saying that China's global market share has risen sharply in the past two years, despite previous calls from the US for decoupling from China.

'A great place to do business'

From into the exposition to the construction of free trade port in hainan, from the cancellation of foreign case-by-case examination and approval system to the negative list in the nationwide implementation of cross-border trade in services, the international exhibition of numerous world-class scale, every major deep change initiatives and foreign investment preferential policy, China is more open the more open the door to Europe business insight to see the development of China and global sharing pattern and confidence.

Philippe de Winter, vice President of the Flemish Regional Parliament in Belgium, said the economic exchanges and exchange of ideas between Europe and China are a win-win situation for both sides.

"In the post-pandemic era, China's economy will play a more important role than ever before." "China is rapidly becoming the number one economy in the world," de Winter said. Promoting the implementation of a negative list for cross-border trade in services across China will also strengthen China's position in the world economy."

"There are a wide range of areas where Chinese and European companies can cooperate." Xu Haifeng, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, said manufacturing and industry in Both China and Europe are undergoing digital transformation, and "the two sides are expected to strengthen business cooperation in artificial intelligence, 5G, Internet of Things, e-commerce, big data, smart cities and other new technologies".

Stephen Perry, chairman of the 48 Group Club, which has been dealing with China for nearly half a century from Canton Fair to China Trade Fair and China Import Expo, said that he was surprised by every step of China's opening-up, and this year's Service Trade Fair featuring digital economy impressed him again.