Huanqiu published an interview with the chairman of the China-EU Digital Association, who said cooperation with China is a strategic necessity and that European firms in digital and AI cannot grow while excluding Chinese markets and supply chains.

The association is a private body handling Europe-China digital industry exchange, and voices a line distinct from Brussels' harder posture.

European industry's math

For European manufacturers, China is both a sales market and a parts supplier—especially in EVs, batteries, solar and telecom gear, where replacing Chinese supply costs money and years. There is distance between the policy word 'de-risking' and the contracts firms actually sign.

At the same time European companies complain about permitting and data rules in China and intensifying local competition. Wanting cooperation is not unconditional optimism.

Why state media runs this interview

Chinese outlets giving prominence to a European figure's pro-cooperation remarks is a familiar editorial choice: it is useful for arguing that the EU document's hard line is 'not all of Europe.' Readers should factor that in.

European outlets, conversely, give prominence to the EU Chamber of Commerce in China's grievance surveys. Each side picks the voice that supports its story.

A third perspective

Sinophone Bridge Times treats the interview as neither Europe's true heart nor Chinese propaganda. Both voices exist in Europe and both are real. Governments talk security; companies talk delivery dates. Chinese-heritage entrepreneurs doing business in Europe sit where both languages are audible, and are safer building a structure that survives either than predicting which wins.