The European Chamber of Commerce said in its de-risking report that companies were “skewed disproportionately towards risk management and building resilience” because of the COVID pandemic, global economic slowdown, Ukraine war and U.S.-China geopolitical competition.
“China has a rational self-interest in ensuring that there is a workable commercial relationship with Europe going forward. And that, frankly, is put at risk right now,” Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, said.
“I think there is a risk that Europe feels compelled to react in more protective ways.”
No, what he is saying is “We don’t like that Europeans care so much about things like reliability and moral concerns, it is getting in the way of making a profit over here in China and thus getting in the way of my career as the president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China”.
See also here https://www.europeanchamber.com.cn/en/national-news/3522/european_chamber_members_elect_jens_eskelund_president_and_select_a_new_executive_committee
What this have to do with morals? European companies do business with Saudi Arabia and Israel and only stopped to do with Russia because they aren’t allowed to do.
All of this discussion is about risk management of possible crisis and he disagree with the risk seen by Europeans companies.
And maybe the fact he is the president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China should be seen as a plus in considering his opinion. You are baseless imputing conflict of interests to say we should ignore a specialist in the matter cause (inserts meme of trump saying “CHINA”)
If you followed the news in recent months you would know about the European efforts about ensuring supply chains do not involve exploitation or other morally objectionable practices. These represent compliance risks to companies working with countries like China. It would be naive to assume that a statement like his about risks has nothing to do with that.