The European Commission has asserted a new economic warfare operation against a major Chinese firm, Jingdong (JD.com), a competitor to Alibaba, apparently to prevent JD.com from merging with a major German e-commerce company, Ceconomy, in Dusseldorf, which operates more than 1,000 consumer electronic stores in eleven countries. JD.com has a $2.5 billion bid for Ceconomy pending.
Global Times reports that on Wednesday, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Justice “blasted the EU’s targeting of JD.com, saying the bloc had arbitrarily demanded extensive and unnecessary information located in China from Chinese entities on a cross-border basis.” The spokesman said such demands are improper and constitute a serious violation of the international rule of law.
The Ministry of Justice, together with the Ministry of Commerce and other relevant authorities, according to Global Times, “determined in accordance with rules on countering foreign states’ unlawful extraterritorial jurisdiction measures that the EU’s actions constituted unlawful extraterritorial jurisdiction. Any organization or individual is therefore prohibited from complying with or assisting in the implementation of the measures, according to the spokesperson.”
The decision by the European Commission marks its first in-depth probe of a Chinese deal under its so-called FSR, the 2023 Foreign Subsidies Regulation, although in February they investigated the Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind. The supposed reason is that the Chinese companies are given grants, preferential tax measures, and preferential financing in the form of loans, which negatively affect the pristine free market in the EU.
