By Kate Yuan
(JW Insights) Jul 7 -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang said Tokyo’s impending export controls on cutting-edge chip equipment will damage the global economy. Li remarked when receiving a Japanese delegation on July 5, Bloomberg reported.
Premier Li said he had reservations about the restrictions and urged countries not to mix politics with economics according to the former Japanese foreign minister’s secretary, Kazuo Koga in a press briefing on July 6.
Li also expressed that “China will, as always, support Japanese companies in expanding investment in and cooperation with China,” according to the official Xinhua News Agency,
The Chinese premier added that Europe’s economic outlook was grimmer than that of Japan or China, according to Koga, who attended the meeting along with the Japanese ambassador to China and nearly 80 members of a business delegation.
The Eurozone fell into recession in the first quarter, with the bloc’s economy shrinking 0.1% between January and March, according to data released last month. In contrast, Japan’s economy expanded at a faster pace than initially expected, while China’s economy grew albeit at a weaker rate.
Chinese state media coverage of the meeting didn’t directly mention export controls or Europe’s economy, instead focusing on expanding business ties with Japan, said the Bloomberg report.
