French President Emmanuel Macron recently visited China on an official state visit. The Financial Times reported that Macron’s central message was of mounting fear in European capitals that “China’s export-driven economic model poses an existential threat to their own industries”.  These concerns are well-founded. A combination of stifling European bureaucracy and overregulation has resulted in a material decline in capital expenditure in Europe. European industrial companies have started opening operations in countries with lower energy costs and easier regulatory burdens – leaving domestic industry to wither.  Fierce competition from abroad has also played a role – not least from China,…