Western reliance on face masks and other protective gear from China has helped power an economic revival in the country where the coronavirus pandemic first emerged, according to new data from the Beijing government and Chinese analysts.
“Renewed lockdowns in Europe will keep consumers purchasing the personal protective equipment and stay-at-home goods categories fueling Chinese exports,” observed Gavekal Dragonomics, a Beijing-based economic research firm.
Such assessments help account for China’s apparent economic rebound in the months since the lockdowns in Hubei province at the nadir of the coronavirus crisis. Chinese officials touted 4.9% economic growth in the third quarter of the year, although those figures come with the caution that “veracity is the elephant in the room,” as the South China Morning Post put it when referring to data released ahead of next week’s Chinese Communist Party planning session.
“The world today is undergoing great changes unseen in a century, and the global spread of the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the process,” Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping said last week during a tour of Shenzhen, the country’s first special economic zone. “Economic, technological, cultural, security and political patterns are all going through profound adjustments, and the world has entered a period of turbulence and transformations.”
U.S. officials worry that China will make “enormous, enormous strides in terms of its position in the financial system, ownership in supply chains, positions in key tech” by using its wealth to make cut-rate investments in foreign countries and business struggling with the fallout of the pandemic.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cautioned European allies in the post-Soviet space to fight corruption in their own countries and rely on honest investments rather than make concessions to China.
“It’s essential that national policies be as attractive as possible, not favor state-owned enterprises, or put politics in the way of their investment,” he told the Three Seas Initiative on Monday. “On security, the Chinese Communist Party is just waiting to vacuum up your data. Commit to excluding unreliable vendors from our critical telecommunications, energy, and transportation networks.”
