In an interview with Channel Four News, Jin Liqun, the chairman of China’s sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation,  said that the welfare system is the “root cause” of the eurozone crisis, and that working harder and longer would solve its problems. He oversees China’s massive government investment funds with a budget of around $300 billion.

Chinese factory workers

The eurozone debt is merely symptomatic of a bigger problem within the eurozone financial system, he said, that that any attempts to reduce the debt will only go so far “if old-fashioned labour laws remain”.

Mr Jin said:

“Europe is not really short of money. Europe needs to give a clear picture to the Europeans themselves and to the rest of the world that their problems could be worked out.

Overburdened welfare state and sloth-inducing labour laws

“The root cause of the trouble is the over-burdened welfare system, built up since the Second World War in Europe – the sloth-inducing, indolence-inducing labour laws.

“People need to work a bit harder, they need to work a bit longer, and they should be more innovative. We (the Chinese) work like crazy.

“European countries have a lot of advantages. They just need to tap these advantages and they will be back on their feet.”

China will only invest in Europe’s crisis-ridden banking system if it can be sure “there are no black holes” he confirmed.

Chinese work harder

The Chinese certainly do work “like crazy” – on a recent visit it was remarkable to see how the concept of Sunday did not really seem to exist and it was for many practical purposes a normal working day.

The average working week in China is said to be around 47 hours, which is greatly above around 40 hours in the UK and slightly less in most EU countries.

With wages in China far below European levels, and without the same degree of welfare available, the Chinese do need to build up their savings. Working conditions are of course notoriously harsh in certain environments in China.

business, China, China Investment Corporation, eurozone crisis, finance, Jin Liqun, labour laws, welfare state Business Finance & Law, People