An EU commissioner's suggestion that Chinese companies are fueling the European migrant crisis by manufacturing rubber boats used by people smugglers has aroused wide disagreement among Chinese netizens.
"The rubber boats used by the smuggler networks in the Mediterranean are fabricated somewhere in China," Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, told journalists in Beijing on Thursday after he met with China's Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun, reported Reuters.
Avramopoulos requested the support and cooperation of Chinese authorities to "crack down on this business and dismantle it, because what they produce is not serving the common good of the country."
File Photo of Dimitris Avramopoulos. /VCG Photo
More than a million people sought asylum in Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea in 2015. Many of these attempts were made with boats too small and unstable for the waters. In the past four months alone, deaths related to drowning have exceeded 1,000.
The rubber boats are relatively cheap and easy to purchase. A search on China's popular e-commerce platform Taobao.com found various inflatable rafts at prices as low as 10 US dollars.
Rubber boat sale are available on Taobao.com, a popular e-commerce platform. /Taobao Screenshot
It's unknown how many boats used by smugglers trying to ferry migrants to Europe are made in China.
Chinese netizens advised the EU to resolve the problem by focusing on the root of the migrant crisis, instead of accusing China merely because made-in-China products are inexpensive but with good quality.
"Many of the aircraft attacking Afghanistan and Iraq are manufactured in the UK, we urge them to stop producing aircraft and missiles!" one netizen suggested.
"Nice buck-passing, EU!" another netizen ridiculed. "Why don't you guyz draw the water from the Mediterranean Sea, so that made-in-China boats will be useless?"
