Last year the growth rate of the Chinese economy was the lowest in more than 40 years: GDP growth was only 2.3 percent against the background of the coronavirus pandemic, the State Statistics Office of the PRC calculated. It was the lowest rate since 1976 when China’s economy contracted 1.6 percent.

Moreover, in recent years the rate of economic growth in China has exceeded 6 percent per year. Despite the historic decline and the complexities which were associated with the coronavirus pandemic, the PRC’s economy has been in unexpectedly good shape. It was China that became the only major economy in the world which avoid recession during the pandemic and global crisis. This is largely due to the growth in exports: the demand for Chinese goods naturally grew amid disruptions due to COVID-19.

In November 2020, experts said that Europe is “critically dependent” on exports from China in 103 categories of goods and products. China turned out to be the second most important trading partner of the European Union after the United States. The report said that Europe needs Chinese imports in the pharmaceutical, chemical and electronics sectors. Analysts say that strategic dependence is a situation in which EU countries import more than 50 percent of any product from China.