During his official visit to China from 7 to 13 April, at the invitation of the Chinese authorities, our President Georges-Louis Bouchez held numerous political and economic talks in Beijing and Shenzhen. In Beijing, he met with Yin Li, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as Minister Liu Haixing and Vice-Minister Ma Hui.
The talks covered economic relations, international stability and 55 years of cooperation between Belgium and China. Georges-Louis Bouchez stressed the importance of balanced multilateralism and healthy competition between our economies, calling for clear agreements on patents, investment protection and trade reciprocity. “Brussels must reclaim its place alongside Beijing and Washington by relying on its energy and industrial strengths”, he stressed.
In Shenzhen, a technology hub comparable to Silicon Valley, our President took an interest in China's dynamism in the digital and artificial intelligence sectors, meeting Jiang Yuyang, Vice-President of the Municipal People's Congress, and visiting innovative companies such as BYD, Xiaomi and Ubitech Robotics.
Chinese entrepreneurs and political representatives stressed the need to strengthen ties between young talent and industry in both countries, while highlighting Belgian expertise in chemistry, biology and computer science. The aim: to foster concrete, balanced industrial cooperation rooted in a shared vision of progress and modernity.
For the MR President, this mission to China confirms a clear finding: Europe can no longer afford simply to endure. Faced with Asian dynamism, he calls for an overhaul of European economic policy, the removal of red tape and lower burdens on businesses. “Taxing is not a strategy”, he says, pointing to the naivety of recent decades and the need for an industrial revival. Without giving up dialogue with China and while remaining clear-eyed about its approach, Georges-Louis Bouchez defends a message of European sovereignty, Belgium's interests, economic realism and openness to the world: a vital balance to preserve our prosperity and our freedom.