Cost of "decoupling from China" enormous for world, says expert

Aerial photo taken on June 30, 2022 shows a China-Europe freight train pulling out of the Tuanjiecun station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. (Xinhua/Tang Yi)

It is in Germany's interest to continue and expand cooperation with China, said Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and chairwoman of the German think tank the Schiller Institute.

FRANKFURT, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The idea of "decoupling from China" is a geopolitical plot, and amounts to economic suicide for Germany, with the European Union (EU) and the world economy suffering the consequences, a chairwoman of a German think tank has said.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and chairwoman of the German think tank the Schiller Institute, warned that Germany's attempts to reduce its economic dependency on China under the pressure of the United States will plunge the country into turmoil and put its economy at great peril.

As the geopolitical situation worsens and the energy crisis intensifies, the possibility and cost of "reducing dependence on China" and "decoupling from China" are under intensive discussion in Germany and the EU, Zepp-LaRouche said, stressing that China and Germany have great potential for cooperation and "decoupling" is against Germany's interests.

A decoupling of the EU and Germany from China would cost Germany almost six times as much as Brexit, said a study by the Munich-based ifo Institute for Economic Research, which revealed that the automotive industry would be the biggest loser in the event of a trade war with China.

Visitors tour the Germany exhibition booth during the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Tiancong)

Zepp-LaRouche said that the ifo's estimation understated the impact of economic decoupling, which would lead to geopolitical confrontation and weigh heavily on the world economy.

"So I think this is a pass into a disaster and should not be taken," the expert said.

Germany has reached the point where it needs to stand up to defend its own interests, instead of making itself "a servant of geopolitical games of the United States," she said.

The complementarity between the Chinese and German economies is palpable, and it would be unwise for Germany to discontinue its cooperation with China, she said.

It is in Germany's interest to continue and expand cooperation with China, the expert added.

The economic policy pursued by China has enabled itself to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and achieve persistently steady economic growth, she said.

The concept of decoupling from China is being advocated by a handful of countries, Zepp-LaRouche said, while more than 120 countries and regions are willing to cooperate with China as the latter has helped them tremendously in such fields as poverty eradication and infrastructure.

"So I think that dynamic clearly is that the majority of the world population does not want to go with such a decoupling," she said.