Crossing the River, One Stone at a Time
Valérie Hoeks is a business strategist who has spent years working at the intersection of European and Chinese business cultures and understands how Chinese business works from the inside out. In that time, one pattern has become increasingly clear to her. China is no longer operating on the sidelines of the energy transition. It is part of the system Europe is building. As a supplier of technology and materials, as a competitor, and as a partner. That reality does not call for alarmism, she argues, but for strategic awareness.
“The dependency is already there,” she says. “And it has been there for quite a while. The real question is how we deal with it.”
A long-term destination, a flexible route
To explain how China approaches strategy, Valérie often refers to a well-known Chinese saying: 摸着石头过河 — mo zhe shi tou guo he. Crossing the river by touching the stones. The destination, the other side of the river, is clear. But the route is not fixed. You adapt as you go, responding to what you encounter along the way.
That flexibility, Valérie explains, is deeply embedded in Chinese culture and influenced by Taoist philosophy. Change is expected. Adjustment is normal. Strategy is about maintaining direction, not about controlling every step in advance.
In Europe, the instinct is often the opposite. We want clarity before we move. Rules, frameworks and certainty come first. That approach has its strengths, stability, safety and trust, but it also makes adaptation slower. “We find it difficult when the route changes,” Valérie notes. “Even if the destination hasn’t.”
Innovation moves first
This difference in mindset becomes very visible when it comes to innovation. In China, new technologies are often tested and applied in practice before regulation is fully defined. There is room for trial and error, for learning by doing.
Europe tends to reverse that order. Regulation precedes adoption. Risks are addressed upfront, sometimes before technology has the chance to prove its value. According to Valérie, that difference explains much of the speed gap between Europe and China. “We organise things to be right,” she says. “China organises things to move.”
Between dependency and control
In the energy transition, this contrast plays out in very concrete ways. Europe increasingly relies on Chinese batteries, components and materials, a dependency made visible during the COVID-19 crisis, especially in sectors like wind energy.
Valérie is pragmatic about this reality. Europe does not match China’s scale, speed or cost structure. “We don’t have the same volumes. We don’t have the same pace. And we can’t compete on price,” she says. At the same time, dependency is not all-or-nothing. European companies, particularly startups, often have strong, distinctive technologies, but are obstructed in their growth by limited access to data and scaling opportunities. That is where cooperation with China can, in some cases, offer opportunities.
Valérie is careful not to romanticise collaboration. “It’s a balancing act,” she says. “You don’t give everything away. You must be very clear about what your added value is and how you protect it.”
In some cases, European companies may need Chinese markets or partners to test and validate their technology before returning to Europe with a stronger position. Without that step, they risk remaining dependent on Chinese solutions rather than building European ones. Sometimes, Valérie concludes, collaboration is simply necessary. Not as an end in itself, but to regain control.
Moving beyond outdated images
One of the biggest obstacles Valérie sees is Europe’s lingering image of China as merely “the factory of the world.” That perception no longer reflects reality. China now plays multiple roles at once: supplier, competitor and partner, both inside and outside its borders. Failing to recognise that complexity leads to oversimplified strategies.
“You don’t need to share the same ideology to work together,” Valérie says. “But you do need to look at China strategically.”
The need for direction
While many companies are already navigating this terrain pragmatically, Valérie sees a lack of clarity at government level. Policies are fragmented. Direction is often missing. As a result, businesses are left to make strategic choices largely on their own.
She argues for what she calls a China Strategy Framework: a clear decision-making structure that helps assess when cooperation makes sense, where risks become too great, and where Europe should invest to strengthen its own position. Not a rigid policy, but a practical compass.
Keeping the conversation open
Finally, Valérie emphasises the importance of how Europe talks about China, as public debate often swings between an ungrounded fear of China and a ‘panda-hugger’ mentality, leaving little room for nuance and making it harder to build long-term strategies that are both realistic and resilient. Platforms like Arnhem Electricity Week play a role precisely because they create space for that nuance.
Looking ahead, her hope is not that Europe distances itself from China, but that it becomes more deliberate in how it engages. The energy transition, she suggests, is not a single leap across the river, but a careful crossing, stone by stone.