The U.S. financial media outlet Bloomberg covers the prospect that Germany may lose its status as an industrial superpower, in the article published on February 10.
Three days after the article's release, Alexey Belyaev, political scientist and dean of the Faculty of Journalism of BSU, stated on the Belarusian Radio Alfa that the Chinese had put the Germans out of work.
«The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the closure of many markets and reduced demand for products. Moreover, the demand for German goods, for example, in China, has decreased. Germany supplied expensive, high-quality goods there, and China, in return, gave goods in a cheaper price segment to Europe, including Germany. It so happened that, for example, China closed the consumption of German expensive goods, which put the German industry out of work. At the same time, Chinese cheap goods continue to fill Germany and Europe,” he said.
China has indeed reduced its purchases of German goods, but not as significantly as Belyaev claims. In 2023, exports from Germany to China lowered by 8.8% in value of goods. At the same time, over the past year, imports of Chinese goods to Germany decreased by 19.2% according to the same indicator.
