China Dispatches

This episode is edited from a presentation by Dr Wang Dan, China Director of Eurasia Group, at a European Chamber event, ‘Insight China: Is China’s Economy Turning the Corner?’ that took place on 19th June 2025. In the presentation, she focused on answering the question ‘how resilient is China’s Economy’. The European Chamber will host […]

The European Chamber’s annual flagship report, the European Business in China Position Paper, was released on 17th September. As 2025 is the last year of China’s 14th Five-year Plan (FYP), this year’s Executive Position Paper reviews the plan’s outcomes and provides constructive recommendations for the upcoming 15FYP, based on feedback from our member companies. In […]

At the end of 2024, three of the European Chamber’s Beijing colleagues – Beijing General Manager Carl Hayward, Head of European Affairs Ester Cañada Amela and Policy and Communications Manager Mariann Nagy – sat down with our host Gao Rui, senior marketing manager, to review the year and look forward to 2025. The last episode focused on the keywords […]

At the end of 2024, three of the European Chamber’s Beijing colleagues – Beijing General Manager Carl Hayward, Head of European Affairs Ester Cañada Amela and Policy and Communications Manager Mariann Nagy – sat down with our host Gao Rui, senior marketing manager, to review the year and look forward to 2025. This episode focused […]

2024 has been an extraordinary year of elections. Two of the world’s largest economies, the European Union and the United States, voted for their new leadership. Due to the strong economic ties between China, the EU and the US, the ramifications of both elections could be enormous for European companies operating in China. In this […]

In the past year, the Chinese government has been promoting visa-free policies to boost inbound travel. During this summer, news about the big boom of China’s inbound tourists is all over the Chinese media. Foreign vloggers posted tons of travelling in China videos and some of them went viral on Chinese social media. In this […]

The European Chamber published its annual Business Confidence Survey in early May. Respondents reported that alongside economic and geopolitical challenges, competition is also a key hurdle for their business in China. In this episode, our host Gao Rui, senior marketing manager at the European Chamber, is joined by Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber, […]

The European Chamber published its annual Business Confidence Survey in early May. It shows a significant improvement in perceptions about market opening: 19% of respondents report significant market opening in their industry, which is the highest level recorded in the past decade; and 26% of respondents report some opening, the same proportion as last year. […]

The European Chamber published its annual Business Confidence Survey in early May. One section of the survey is on carbon neutrality. It is a key policy priority for the Chinese Government, which targets peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. It is also a key goal of European businesses in China, […]

With Chinese and global economic growth expected to slow, and China making the transition to long-term management of the COVID-19 pandemic, how are HR professionals’ strategies on workforce management evolving? In this episode, our host Gao Rui, senior marketing manager at the European Chamber, is joined by Sunny Sun and Wang Shuhong, chair and vice […]

One founding member of the European Chamber went on to serve as its president for four terms spanning over a decade and a half, all while balancing an enormous workload, dividing his time between Chamber tasks and his day-job as the head of BASF in Beijing. After stepping down as Chamber president in May, he […]

The European Chamber, in partnership with the Mercator Institute for China Studies, (MERICS) launched the joint-report China’s Innovation Ecosystem: The localisation dilemma on 21st April. The report was the second of a planned three rounds of surveys and interviews among the Chamber’s members on European companies’ research and development (R&D) activities in China. In this […]

As policymakers and companies all over the world strive to harness the potential of digitalisation while limiting the risks, what steps have European Union (EU) policymakers taken to position Europe at the forefront of the digital revolution? And what aspects of digitalisation are informing discussions with China, which the EU recognises as a partner, a […]

After an enforced break of nearly three years, the European Chamber’s European Tour took place in-person from 9th to 13th January, to present the Chamber’s messaging to key European stakeholders, including officials from the European Commission and the European Parliament, and representatives from industry associations and think tanks. The Chamber delegation participated in a total of 48 meetings...

In this episode, our host Ziting Zhang, the European Chamber’s head of government affairs, is joined by Damien Plan, agricultural counsellor at the European Union (EU) Delegation to China, to talk about the development of the landmark bilateral agreement on Geographical Indications between the EU and China, the introduction of cheese to the Chinese market, and […]

In this episode, our host Carl Hayward, general manager of European Chamber Beijing Office, is joined by Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber, and Jens Eskelund, vice president of the European Chamber. They discuss why and how companies’ supply chain strategies are shifting, what the implications are and what can be expected in the […]

In this two-year anniversary episode, we revisit what it is like to travel to China during the pandemic, having also focussed on this topic in the inaugural China Dispatches episode in September 2020. Hear from European Chamber insiders, States’ Representative Peter Ling-Vannerus, and staff members Robbie Jarvis, policy and communications manager, and Charlotte Svensson, policy […]

In this episode, our host Ester Cañada Amela, senior business manager for European affairs at the European Chamber, sat down with Jörg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber. They discussed the outcomes of the recent European Union (EU)-China High-level Economic and Trade Dialogue (HED) on 19th July, as well as what to expect from EU-China […]

In this episode, our host Carl Hayward, general manager of European Chamber Beijing Office, is joined by Jet Chang, vice chair of the European Chamber’s Environment Working Group, vice president for Circular Economy Business Development, Tomra Group; Dr Bradley Morrison, senior vice president, Operations and Site Management Greater China, BASF; and Cui Lin, Sustainability and […]

In this episode, our host Ziting Zhang, head of government affairs at the European Chamber, is joined by Jörg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber, and Alex Roberts, counsel at Linklaters, to discuss difficulties China-based branches face when interacting with European headquarters, and provide suggestions on how to increase mutual understanding. What to listen for: […]

President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China Jörg Wuttke is invited to join “Bridging the gap” podcast to talk about his past 40 years experience of working in China and the work of the European Chamber. This episode is produced by Mats HINRICHSEN and Philip FISCHER from Peking University. What to listen for: […]

In this episode our host Adam Dunnett, secretary general of the European Chamber, sits down with guest speakers Renzo Isler, director of the EU SME Centre, Helika Jurgenson, project manager at the China IP SME Helpdesk, and Ester Canada Amela, advocacy manager at the EU SME Centre. They discuss China’s business environment for SMEs, and […]

In this episode, our host Ziting Zhang, head of government affairs of the European Chamber, is joined by Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber, and Dr Guo Peiyuan, general manager and founder of SynTao, to discuss a buzzword for 2022, common prosperity. What to listen for: 00:13–02:58 Policy background of the common prosperity concept […]

In this episode, we sit down with Jörg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber, Caroline Chen, chair of the Information and Communication Technology Working Group, and Xu Zhonghua, chair of the Energy Working Group, to look at the recently released European Business in China Position Paper 2021/2022 – the Chamber’s annual flagship report, and discuss […]

In this episode, Charlotte Roule, board member of the European Chamber, introduces the European Business in China Business Confidence Survey 2021. She reviews the results on a range of topics, including financial performance, COVID-19 travel restrictions, supply chain adjustments, the politicisation of business, long-standing market access and level-playing field challenges, carbon neutrality, and...