MEPs in China: Refusal to cooperate with the new economic center of the world would be a fatal mistake for the EU

Shanghai, China. Trade, industry, innovation, but also space for our investors and exporters of goods and services for the hundred million Chinese consumer market. Asia in general and China in particular will be the economic center of the world in the 21st century.

With my colleagues from the European Parliament, I have a six-day marathon of lectures at the best universities in Beijing and Shanghai (Beijing, Tsinghua, Renmin, Fudan), a series of podcasts and interviews for the media with millions of views, and meetings with chambers of commerce and politicians. All on one theme: Cooperation instead of rivalry. Letting ourselves be excluded from this market would be an extraordinary mistake for our country and for the EU - and unfortunately, this is exactly the mistake the EU leadership, incapable of economic diplomacy, is making right now. Fortunately, our new government is a lot more sensible, trying to repair the damage caused by the Purple government, and to some extent succeeding.

Czechs are open in China - we have a great reputation here from the days of Czechoslovakia, which was never a colonial country, on the contrary, it provided aid to developing countries, and today, when these countries have achieved development, we can build on that. It's enough that stupid people don't spoil it for us...

China, the most powerful industrial country in the world today (sorry, but the USA can no longer produce and is also "second" in technology) is controlled by guess who? Communists. You can disagree with it, you can protest against it, but that's all you can do about it :) And it makes sense - wealth comes from work and innovation, not from financial speculation and waging wars. And it is worth studying whether the Chinese communists hit the right mix of successful state planning and the free market, without which the economy cannot prosper, but which is also a "bad master". We are also working on this for a long time. And one more important thing: Motivation to work. It is here, perhaps because the Chinese build for themselves, not for others, and they see long-term results - from a war-ravaged, underdeveloped, colonialist-exploited country, they managed to create something in a few decades that even the proud expedition of Trump and his top businessmen had to cower before.

Now we are heading to Hangzhou, another technology center, for another series of meetings, on Saturday night and Sunday morning we had the only free time, but that's how it should be - the Chinese don't solve work-life balance either:) I just apologize for the reduced frequency of posts here, iTo be clearI broadcast a little emergency at three in the morning, due to the time difference. After your return, you can look forward to a detailed report in Eurojungle.