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Advocacy

The EU SME Centre’s advocacy activities aim at supporting the interests of European SMEs in China by creating a platform for exchanges between various relevant stakeholders and ensuring that the voices of European small businesses in China are heard. The Advocacy Platform operates in three major areas: information sharing, consolidation of feedback and dissemination and outreach.

Information sharing

Through its information sharing activities, the Advocacy Platform aims to build a space where relevant European stakeholders, be it small businesses, Embassies or industry can have access to information on key policies, market and business trends and can enjoy productive exchanges.

The Advocacy Platform has two main avenues for achieving these goals:

The Inter-Chamber SME Working Group

The Inter-Chamber Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Working Group（Inter-Chamber SME WG) was established in 2014 as a new advocacy element of the EU SME Centre with the objective of ensuring that the voice of European SMEs in China is heard. The Working Group acts as a channel where SME concerns over the business challenges faced in China can be expressed, mainly through the Inter-Chamber SME Working Group Position Paper. The Inter-Chamber SME WG also organises a series of regular working group meetings and policy meetings.

Participation in Working Group meetings is open to European SMEs and businesses, as well as European embassies, EU-funded projects and industry associations.

Some of our most recent Working Group meetings include:

  • 9 April 2025 | Leveraging E-Commerce in China while Protecting Your IP
  • 17 October 2024 | Intellectual Property Protection in a Brave New Digital World: A Primer for SMEs
  • 25 June 2024 | China’s Payment Landscape and How to Navigate It
  • 17 June 2024 | New Quality Productive What? Making Sense of China’s Updated Industrial Policy Goals
  • 19 March 2024 | Green Supply Chain Management: Empowering SME Suppliers
  • 27 February 2024| An SME-Friendly Overview of the IP Regulatory Landscape and Compliance Considerations
  • 14 June 2023 | Tapping into China’s E-Commerce Ecosystem While Protecting Your IP
  • 12 April 2023 | Mapping the Development of the SME Environment in China in 2023
  • 24 November 2022 | Riding the Digitalisation Wave
  • 13 September 2022 | Sustainable Supply Chain Management
  • 21 July 2022 | Mapping the Development of the SME Environment in China in 2021

Policy Meetings

Policy Meetings are events where experts provide debriefings on the latest trends on topics like Chinese policy and politics, economy, foreign relations, climate and technology.

Participation to Policy Meetings is open only to European institutional stakeholders like Embassies and Consulates, staff and board members from industry associations, and EU-funded projects.

Some of our most recent Policy Meetings include:

  • 16 April 2025 | Trump 2.0’s Tariff Bazooka – Implications for EU-US-China Dynamics
  • 8 April 2025 | Dissecting China’s Blueprints for Property, Demographics and Consumption
  • 7 February 2025 | Reviving Demand, Regaining Momentum: An Overview of the World Bank’s China Economic Update
  • 13 December 2024 | Ready or Not: EU-US-China Relations in the Trump 2.0 Era
  • 25 October 2024 | China’s Economic Footprint in the Global South
  • 24 July 2024 | Decoding China’s Third Plenum
  • 11 April 2024 | Understanding Demographic Headwinds Threatening Growth in China
  • 19 March 2024 | A Two Sessions Roundup with Neil Thomas and Dan Wang
  • 19 December 2023 | EU-China Climate Collaboration in the Era of Poly-Crisis
  • 18 July 2023 | Current Policy Dynamics on State-Owned Enterprises and Private-Owned Enterprises
  • 9 March 2023 | Two Sessions 2023 Explained
  • 13 December 2022 | What’s Next for Sino-German Relations?
  • 24 October 2022 | Plus ça change or the start of something new? Decoding the 20th Party Congress
  • 27 September 2022 | Taking the Temperature of Cross-Strait Ties

Consolidation of Feedback

The Advocacy Platform collects information and facts about the challenges and problems faced by EU SMEs in China through the Inter-Chamber SME Working Group, and it also tracks SME policy developments. The results of this research are then consolidated into two major publications: the annual Inter-Chamber SME Working Group Position Paper and the SME Policy Environment Report.

Advocacy Publications

SME Position Paper 2024/2025

The Inter-Chamber SME Working Group Position Paper is the product of an annual process of extensive feedback gathering from European SMEs in China conducted through the Inter-Chamber SME Working Group. The Position Paper is our main vehicle for SME advocacy, as it contains the key concerns and recommendations from European SMEs on a given year.

SME Policy Environment Report: 2024 Update

The SME Policy Environment report sets out to provide an overview of the most significant developments affecting SMEs operating in the country throughout the past year. The structure of the report consists of an introduction to SMEs in China, an analysis of the current policy environment of SMEs in various areas and a conclusion. The SME Policy Environment Report is updated on an annual basis.

Dissemination and Outreach

The Advocacy Platform engages actively with relevant Chinese and European policymakers, both at the national and provincial/local level, in order to share its work and create awareness of the issues related to European SMEs in China.

Some of our outreach activities include:

  • Organisation and participation in both high- and working-level meetings with government representatives;
  • Participation in major conferences within and outside of China, and business-led seminars;
  • Submission of feedback on relevant draft regulations and legislations; and
  • Many others.

To find out more and take part in the Advocacy Platform, contact our Advocacy Manager Ester Cañada Amela or our Advocacy and Working Group Coordinator Susana Xu.

 

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