Europe’s manufacturers could give up on attempting to compete with their Chinese counterparts by the end of the decade if current trends continue amid fears over mass job losses, the head of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China has warned.
In a case of “if you can’t beat them, join them”, Jens Eskelund said European companies operating in China were now thinking “Made in China for China” could be replaced by a philosophy of “Made in China for the world”.
China is disrupting markets like Japan did 50 years ago. But today we coexist fine with Japan as part of the global market, and the same will happen with China. Problem is that China is way bigger, and the disruption is way bigger too.
Europe may not compete in building humanoid robots, but we remain the biggest manufacturer of sensors for them, just as we don’t generally compete much on microchips, but we are world leading in making chips for inverters.
The competition is tough, but everything considered Europe is doing pretty well.