Global China Conversations #52
China’s Export Surge: How can Europe Address Rising Competition from China?
How much of Europe’s competitiveness challenge is driven by growing Chinese competition? Can tariffs and other trade defense instruments effectively address competitive pressure from China in the European market, including price advantages arising from subsidies and an allegedly undervalued RMB? And how can Europe respond to Chinese competition in China itself and in third markets, where such instruments have limited reach? More generally, which domestic barriers to competitiveness should Europe tackle most urgently, and how?
Speakers

Julian Hinz
Julian Hinz is a Professor of International Economics at Bielefeld University and the head of the Research Center Trade Policy at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Previously, he was an assistant professor at Bielefeld University, head of the Kiel Institute’s Trade Policy Task Force, a visiting assistant professor at the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) of the University of Düsseldorf, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Kiel Institute. In 2018–2019, he was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Paris School of Economics and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He is an associate editor for the Review of World Economics. His work is at the intersection of international economics and data science, focusing on international trade and its connection with foreign policy, the spatial dimension of international trade, migration and finance, and related questions in applied econometrics.

Jürgen Matthes
Jürgen Matthes is head of the Research Unit International Economic Order and Business Cycle of the German Economic Institute, Cologne. He studied economics at the Technical University of Dortmund and Dublin City University. His research focuses on the economic aspects of globalization.

Moderator
Marcel Grzanna
Marcel Grzanna, Textchef at China.Table, longtime China correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung (2007 until 2016) and author of “Eine Gesellschaft in Unfreiheit” (Goldmann). Lives in Cologne.
Literature
Chowdhry, S., Erhardt, K. & Hinz, J. (2026), Competing with China in third markets, Kiel Policy Brief No. 213, June 2026. https://www.kielinstitut.de/publications/competing-with-china-in-third-markets-19891/
Matthes, J. (2026), Chinas Beitrag zur De-Industrialisierung – eine grobe Abschätzung, IW-Kurzbericht 43/2026, 30 June 2026. https://www.iwkoeln.de/studien/juergen-matthes-chinas-beitrag-zur-de-industrialisierung-eine-grobe-abschaetzung.html
Jürgen Matthes (2026), Weniger Arbeitsplätze von deutschen China-Exporten abhängig, IW-Kurzbericht 10/2026, 12 February 2026. https://www.iwkoeln.de/studien/juergen-matthes-weniger-arbeitsplaetze-von-deutschen-china-exporten-abhaengig.html
Program
The event consists of two impulse lectures followed by a discussion.
The Global China Conversation #52 will be held in English.
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Media Partner
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