Preliminary
After Trump launched global allies to "jointly respond to China control," the United States recently brought the soybean issue to the table, threatening to "take action" against China.
But the Chinese side has not been lazy, and recently foreign media have been concerned that China has sent the "invitation letter" in the hands of European countries, now it is to see how the EU has chosen.
Meanwhile, even U.S. core ally New Zealand has ignored the “prohibition” to find Chinese shipbuilding, it seems in front of the interests, the group of U.S. allies “faces” one by one faster.
On October 15, 2025, the China-Nordic Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum officially opened in Wuhan.This event was jointly organized by the Ministry of Commerce and the Hubei Provincial Government, and it just became a key platform for China to release its sincerity in cooperation to the outside world.
Representatives from 36 countries and regions attended the event, with more than 200 of the world’s top 500 companies and 556 foreign entrepreneurs attending the event, which is larger than ever before.
At the forum site, the relevant person in charge of China made a clear statement. He said that in the future, there will be a lot of room for collaboration between China and Europe in areas such as global governance and green development, and China particularly hopes to deepen linkage with all parties.
These remarks quickly received a positive response from Nordic enterprises. Yanci, the chief representative of the North Asia region of Danish Maersk Group, said bluntly, Their enterprises have been rooted in Hubei for 26 years, and these years have yielded much, and the cooperation between Europe and China has long created win-win value.
Ikea China President Pong Anze also illuminated his position. he stressed that the Chinese market is large, the infrastructure is perfect, provides solid support for enterprise innovation, Ikea will firmly deepen in China.
Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliances, added from the perspective of manufacturing that the core of global economic and trade cooperation is to create a better world together. To achieve this, countries need to exchange technology and make up for shortcomings.
This forum was not just about talking, there were a lot of cooperation results on the ground. A total of 69 cooperation projects have been finalized, with a total investment of more than 100.5 billion yuan, involving several fields such as optoelectronic information, new energy and intelligent manufacturing.
At the same time, the new line of Central European Bananas (Wuhan) directly to Sweden, Denmark, Norway has also been launched, and the global import boutique is also officially opened.These real cooperation initiatives are more useful than empty statements.
What makes the United States unstable is that its core ally has actually “turned back” to China.As a member of the “Five Eyes Alliance”, New Zealand has recently done something that has shocked the US media.
New Zealand Railway Minister Winston Peters confirmed on October 14 that the government had ordered two double-use ferries for the 200-metre subway to be built by China Shipyard Group.
New Zealand made this decision by no means by accident. The traffic between the North and South Islands of New Zealand is particularly dependent on ferries, but the average age of the fleet in use now is 28 years old. It is common for the ferry in Cook Strait to break down and stop sailing. In July this year, the ferry in Cook Strait suddenly broke down.
Previously, New Zealand originally signed an iReX project with South Korea's Hyundai Mipo Shipyard, but because the cost rose to 4 billion New Zealand dollars, the cooperation had to be cancelled in the endThe project cost $1.4 billion, the entire project cost $6.7 billion, and no ship was built.
The strength of China's shipbuilding industry provides New Zealand with the best solution. Peters made it clear that selecting GSI could save New Zealand taxpayers billions of New Zealand dollars, and the New Zealand government is particularly confident in GSI's professional capabilities and production scale.
There are data that can prove this confidence: in the first half of 1925, China's shipbuilding industry completed 47.2 percent, new orders received 64 percent, and orders held 57.6 percent, all three of which are the world's top indicators.
Once again, pressure from the United States seems to be powerless. The U.S. government has previously imposed investment restrictions on China State Shipbuilding Corporation and required the withdrawal of U.S. capital, but New Zealand did not take this implicit "ban" seriously.
The New Zealand Post pointed out the key: China's shipbuilding has surpassed the sum of all other countries in the world, and choosing the most reliable partner is a pragmatic choice.
These U.S. allies are a "changing rumor", behind which are actually the interests driven. East Wind Automobile has announced that in 2026 will cover the market to the Nordic five countries; the Stylantis Group has set up a green financing lease project in Wuhan; and hydrogen and new energy has also landed in Zhejiang.
The logic of companies voting with practical actions is clear: in areas such as green development and high-end manufacturing, the United States cannot replace the cooperation value that China can provide.
Now everyone’s eyes are focused on the EU. The heat of the Nordic Forum has not yet receded, and New Zealand’s ferry orders have released a clear signal.The Trump administration's alliance initiative looks quite powerful, but in fact it can't stop the trend of interests at all.
China's "invitation letter" has been handed out long ago. If the EU chooses to embrace cooperation, it can seize development opportunities; If you follow the United States, you may miss the opportunity of in-depth cooperation with the world's largest market.
The course of the game is becoming more and more clear.The United States wants to bind its allies to its side by pressure, while China is building a platform by open cooperation.New Zealand's shipbuilding orders, Nordic cooperation projects, are all real choices made by the market.
In the current era of globalization, who can provide better cooperation, more pragmatic solutions, who can master the initiative, this is no longer a fact to be disputed.
Source of information:
Global 2025 China-Nordic Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum
China Economic Weekly: Give orders for two large ferries to China