China: Europe's Best Friend?
It is obvious that we Europeans will have to look for new friends in the wake of Trump's anti-European policy. There is little choice: the only possible future allies are Russia, China and the BRICS states.
Russia has excluded itself due to the war in Ukraine. The BRICS countries, which include Russia and China, are too heterogeneous and undisciplined to serve as partners for Europe. That leaves China.
Why not a partnership with China? China does not have a disputed border with Europe. We are protected from China's expansionism by the existence of Russia, which is big enough to make China's drive for conquest come to nothing.
Competition with China for the role of the world's largest economic and military power is America's problem, not Europe's. Our sole aim is to reorganize the ailing European economy so as not to fall by the wayside in the competition with China and the USA.
American sawing at the roots of NATO has already led to the formation of a new coalition of the willing focused on Europe. This alliance should be in a position to negotiate with China on equal footing and discuss cooperating not only on climate issues, but also on armaments.
The aim could be to purchase US-free armaments: Chinese jets instead of US jets, for example. Why not?
They are obviously good and modern and could complement France's and Sweden's models.
Heinrich von LoeschBeijing would of course try to influence how we govern Europe. Chinese technicians would work at European air bases, Chinese military personnel stay at European command posts: Beijing would know everything without having to spy. Washington would be forced to cut all ties to Europe for fear of Beijing's espionage. Sad, but: Tu l'as voulu, Donald Dandin.
China expert Wuttke warns that the European Union is distancing itself from the United States and moving closer to Beijing in response to Trump's tariffs. "China is still not just a partner, but a competitor and systemic rival. The USA, on the other hand, remains an irreplaceable partner for Europe," says Wuttke.
WELT Spain will pursue closer trade ties with China in the interests of its citizens and of the EU, its agriculture minister Luis Planas said, rejecting a U.S. warning that moving closer to the Asian country would be "cutting your own throat"."We have excellent trade relations with China which we intend to not only continue having, but expanding," Planas told reporters from Ho Chi Minh City, where he was accompanying Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on a trip to Vietnam and, on Friday, China. ....key U.S. allies are already considering declaring “independence” from Washington—pursuing nuclear weapons, building new regional groupings, challenging the dollar’s role. Some, spurred by domestic reactions to U.S. pressure, are contemplating moving closer to China, even at enormous peril to their industries or security. The United States risks fracturing the free world and closing its best path to scale...As some in the United States talk about creating divisions among China’s partners by executing a “reverse Kissinger” with Russia, Beijing is determined to exploit fissures in Western alliances, notably between the United States and Europe. UpdateTrump to strong-arm EU into splitting from China
Xi Jinping urged the EU to stand up to “bullying” and signalled he was ready to work with leaders in the bloc. The Chinese leader’s comments came as China publicly confirmed for the first time it was suspending sanctions against some European politicians. Xi said: “China and the EU should uphold multilateralism, defend fairness and justice, oppose unilateral bullying.”
As the US bond market faces turbulence, China appears to be accelerating a strategy of divestment from Treasuries. Beijing, for years the United States' largest foreign creditor, is seeking to reduce its exposure to an asset once considered a safe haven. Behind this development lies a major geopolitical issue: can China really do without the dollar, and what would be the macroeconomic consequences for the United States? Economist Alexandre Delaigue explains.
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China's spies no longer seem to fear the U.S., according to former diplomat Jim Lewis, whose direct experience with China's intelligence agencies spans more than 30 years. China's Ministry of State Security, or MSS, is the largest and most active spy agency in the world, according to Lewis. Toward that end, China secretly opened an overseas police station in the middle of New York City. Chinese expats could renew government documents at the station, discovered in 2022, but federal prosecutors said the main purpose of the outpost was to target and harass Chinese dissidents. "They've done it in the Netherlands, they've done it in Canada. But the idea that you'd open a police station in another country, that's a signal disrespect of the sovereignty of that nation," Lewis said. "This is – in scale and in scope and in brazenness – the biggest espionage operation against the U.S. in its history," Lewis said. According to the latest assessment from America's intelligence agencies, China is the most active and persistent cyber threat to the U.S., but hacking has not replaced Beijing's pursuit of old-fashioned human intelligence. China's Communist Party leverages a worldwide network of covert agents to monitor and influence events outside its own borders. It's also surveilling and intimidating Chinese dissidents in the U.S. A Ministry of State Security propaganda video posted on China's largest social network, WeChat, last year boasts that the spy agency "senses things before they happen" and "fights against evil." The video serves as a public message to both foreign adversaries and China's own citizens about the ministry's growing power. The MSS might have as many as 600,000 employees, according to one estimate - CBS
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