Chinese air conditioners have seen a sales boom as Europeans rush to buy these devices amid soaring temperatures, which Beijing has touted as an 'industrial triumph,' according to the Washington Post.

Most homes in Europe lack air conditioning, with estimates suggesting only a fifth of households on the continent have cooling systems. As France, Britain, and Spain recorded record temperatures last June, Chinese air conditioners have become a lifeline for a continent suffering from extreme heat.

Major air conditioner manufacturers, including Midea, Haier, and Gree, have seen a notable increase in sales in recent weeks as temperatures hit record highs and Europeans brace for more heatwaves.

According to Chinese customs data, exports of Chinese air conditioners to France, Britain, and the Netherlands rose by more than 55% in May compared to the previous year.

Sales Boom

Midea's 'Porta Split' units, a popular portable device designed to circumvent European regulations that ban certain building modifications, quickly sold out, prompting some consumers to create websites to track their availability.

Sales of this model have exceeded 200,000 units in Europe this year, double last year's sales, according to the company's regional sales manager as reported by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Europe has also seen a large influx of other Chinese cooling devices, such as ice makers, floor fans, and hand fans. A Chinese trader told Beijing News, a state-run daily, that factories are working around the clock to produce fans for Europe but are struggling to meet surging demand.

China has portrayed its response to 'Europe's plight' as further evidence of its economic progress. Chinese media celebrated the sellout of air conditioning units, calling them 'innovations for overseas markets' and an 'industrial triumph' that would help the country shed its reputation for producing cheap electronics.

In a related context, Chinese diplomats posted videos of Midea's automated factory assembling a new air conditioning unit in just six seconds.

Europe Open to Criticism

In China, 'property owners install permanent air conditioners for their tenants... no one bothers to buy a less efficient portable unit,' a Chinese newspaper editorial noted, pointing to European regulations that restrict consumers to less efficient cooling products like the Porta Split.

The number of air conditioning units in China exceeded the number of households by 2024, according to official statistics reported by Chinese media.

Thanks to their extensive supply chains and ability to customize products on demand, Chinese companies have asserted dominance over lagging European firms, fueling broader European concerns about widening trade imbalances between the EU and China and what is known as the 'second China shock'.

Tianchen Xu, senior China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, a British research and analysis group, said: 'It's not that European companies lack the technical expertise to produce portable split air conditioners; they lack the capacity to produce them in large volumes at low costs.'

But the Chinese government downplayed any geopolitical implications behind the air conditioner sales boom.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a recent press conference: 'Trade is driven by market demand and shaped by economic integration.'

Ding Chun, director of the Center for European Studies at Fudan University in China, added that trade, regardless of geopolitics, 'is about meeting people's daily needs.' He continued: 'Chinese manufacturers have done exactly that.'