Joerg Wuttke, the President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, when talking to the media, recently stated, “They (China’s leadership) are prisoners of their own narrative … China was the first to get into the pandemic and it is the last to get out. In the meantime, they’ve been telling the whole world that they’re the best.”
Wuttke said the above words on April 27, 2022, during an in-depth interview with NZZ Mediengruppe, the German media The Market NZZ. “All over China, entrepreneurs look to Shanghai and have to deal with the scenario that the same thing could happen in their city. So, until further notice, they hit the pause button and froze almost all investment plans.”
“The stimulus measures (in China) are like a band-aid for an amputation. The People’s Bank of China pumps some liquidity into the system, money flows into infrastructure projects and state-owned enterprises receive support. However, that doesn’t get private companies and foreign corporations to invest again.” Wuttke predicted that China’s GDP growth will be below 4 percent this year.
On behalf of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, Wuttke sent a letter to Hu Chunhua, the Vice Premier of China, requesting a change in the official dynamic Zero-Covid policy, but he received no formal response.
He pointed out, “The president (Xi Jinping) has maneuvered himself into two dead ends at once. He can’t change his Covid policy, and he can’t change anything about his friendship with Vladimir Putin.”
“All signs indicate that the politicians do not want to solve the problem, but only to limit it. I don’t see any vaccination campaign, no information campaign, no imports of mRNA vaccines, and I don’t see the population being told that society can live with it. So I have to assume that Zero Covid will result in locking down this city and then that city on a monthly basis, at least until the Party Congress.”
“Perhaps there will be a rethink when the domestic economy hits rock bottom. Perhaps they will realize in Beijing that they need foreign companies after all. Perhaps they will then open their doors wider again. However today, of course, we are not there yet.”
Source: The Market NZZ, April 27, 2022
https://themarkeZt.ch/Cinterview/chinas-leadership-is-prisoner-of-its-own-narrative-ld.6545