Firm offices raided, China calls EU ‘protectionist’

Beijing has called the European Union “protectionist” after the EU raided the offices of a Chinese security equipment supplier in Europe and probed into China’s procurement market for medical devices.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, on Tuesday carried out its powers given by the Foreign Subsidies Regulation for the first time by inspecting a Chinese firm’s branches in Poland and the Netherlands without prior notice on Tuesday morning.

Enforcement agencies authorized by the EC seized the Chinese firm’s IT equipment and employees’ mobile phones, scrutinized office documents and demanded access to pertinent data, according to a statement issued by the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU.

The CCCEU said it and its members are profoundly shocked and dissatisfied with the EU’s actions. It said the EU’s raids sent a detrimental message not only to Chinese enterprises but to all non-EU firms in the region.

It said the sudden unannounced inspection undermined the business environment for foreign companies within the EU in the disguise of foreign subsidies.

“The EU has been frequently using its economic and trade ‘toolkit’ and trade remedies,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in a regular media briefing on Wednesday. “The EU says it is the most open market in the world, but as the world can see, the EU is clearly inching toward protectionism.”

He urged the EU to honor its commitment to open market and fair competition, observe World Trade Organization rules and stop going after and restraining Chinese companies under various pretexts.

The EC said in a statement that the inspected Chinese company may have received foreign subsidies that could distort the internal market