China takes revenge on Europe. There may be a problem with the green transformation. And not only

Gallium and germanium are critical to the semiconductor, telecommunications, satellite and military equipment industries, and . European dreams of decarbonisation are also based on them. They are the largest exporter in the world with a share of 94 percent. for gallium and 83 percent. in the case of germanium. The European Union receives 71 percent. of its gallium from China and 45 percent. germanium. From next month, however, gallium and germanium will be subject to export restrictions. China has imposed restrictions on their exports since August 1, citing national security concerns. This may thwart the EU’s green transformation plans, he writes

“The West will need a decade.” Europe is largely dependent on China

“China’s actions are a stark reminder of who has the upper hand in this game,” Simone Tagliapietra, a researcher at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, told Bloomberg. – The harsh reality is that It will take the West at least a decade to get rid of the risk of China’s mineral supply chainsso it’s really an asymmetric relationship. Europe today is largely dependent on China for its mix of clean tech and critical components, so the escalation of these tensions could certainly make Europe bumpier he explained. In turn, in the morning report of PKO BP economists, we read that “this decision is part of the ‘technology war’ between the US and China and a response to harsher rhetoric from the West (including the announcement of imposing restrictions on the sale of the most advanced semiconductors to China)”. The decision to limit exports of gallium and germanium was taken shortly after it presented an economic security strategy to prevent the leakage of key technologies, including just to China.

The European Union is debating reducing dependence on China

Although no country is mentioned by name in the EC document mentioned above, it is known that it was written with China in mind. The matter is delicate, because first of all – some countries have close economic relations with the Middle Kingdom and do not want to destroy them. Second: security issues, too, are national competences. For these reasons, the European Commission for now only proposes risk assessment and strengthening of controls in three areas. It is about monitoring foreign investments so that companies or infrastructure in Europe are not taken over, controlling the export of modern technologies to countries outside the EUand inspections of investments carried out there.

Reducing dependence on China was discussed at last week’s summit in Brussels. The debate was short, less than two hours, and the conclusions after the meeting are very general, which only confirms the differences of opinion on relations with the Middle Kingdom. For example, France and France, which do not want to risk worsening economic relations with China, take a very cautious stance in the EU. On the other side is Lithuania, which Beijing imposed sanctions for opening an office of the Taiwan Representation in Vilnius, considered by the Chinese authorities to be its rebellious province. The conclusions of the meeting say that the EU must reduce its economic dependence on China in critical sectors, but at the same time it cannot close itself off from cooperation with Beijing, and that the EU and China are important economic partners, but the Community will strive to ensure equal rules of cooperation.

Restrictions for China also from the US

The United States also plans to introduce new restrictions on Chinese people. access to Amazon and Microsoft cloud services for Chinese companies is to be limited. Washington is considering requiring cloud service providers to obtain government approval before serving Chinese companies that use such platforms to train AI models. The Biden administration’s proposal is expected to appear in the form of an official document soon. This is a decision resulting from the need to protect advanced technologies.