“Our objective is not to be the vassals of two hegemonic powers,” he told students in Seoul. “We don’t want to depend on the dominance, let’s say on China, or we don’t want to be too much exposed to the unpredictability of the US.”
European countries, he said, have a shared agenda with places like Japan and South Korea on issues like international law, democracy, climate change and global health.
European countries, he said, have a shared agenda with places like Japan and South Korea on issues like international law, democracy, climate change and global health.
This reads to me that american vassals in europe have a shared agenda with american vassals in asia.
French President Emmanuel Macron is calling on medium-sized powers to join forces and stand up to the US and China.
Europe being hostile towards China isn’t exactly news though. It’s the break up of the Atlantic alliance that’s the real story.
Is Europe’s hostility towards China not a function of US hegemony? Surely there’s less reason to be hostile now.
In a sane world yes, but in reality there’s a lot of racism and notions of white supremacy at play here.
It is more than “racism and notions of white supremacy”, EU and China are both exporting and manufacturing powers. China recently moved into exporting the high value manufacturing products like cars which are a large part of the EUs economy making both blocks rivals.
The Chinese government is using state subsidies to tip the balance further in the favour of Chinese manufacturers. This is just one example from one industry, this pattern is repeated by China across the board. The government is well within its rights to do this but the EU is equally well within its rights to protect its own economy from a form of trade war. It is incredibly reductive to just play the racism card while ignoring the real issues.
EU is not really an export power in any meaningful sense. But even if that was true, you could make exact same argument with the US which directly competes with Europe on exports. Europeans have had absolutely no problem sticking their heads up American ass as far as possible.
Meanwhile, everybody is free to run their internal economy the way they see fit. The whole premise of free markets and capitalism was efficiency. It was supposed to naturally outcompete planned economies like China. If the model isn’t actually working then Europe could acknowledge that and emulate what China is doing instead of whinging. Or accept that they have an inferior model of economic development.
Finally, the EU very obviously doesn’t give a fuck about protecting its economy. If it did, it would’ve never allowed itself to become so dependent on energy imports from the US. The EU kept paying lip service to the idea of going green, but refused to invest into stuff like wind and solar because it came from China. Now the EU finds itself being bent over a barrel by Americans. And it’s frankly well deserved.
EU is not really an export power in any meaningful sense
Are you sure buddy? The only powers who can compete with the EU by value are China and the USA. Come correct if you are going to bother at all.
Every block is free to run their internal economy as they see fit but every other block is also free to set rules on what it determines to be illegal state aid. Sticking to the example of cars but this is also true for other Chinese industries, the whole point of the Chinese illegal state aid is to corner the international manufacturing market degrading competitors manufacturing ability before then increasing the price to profitable levels.
Europe does not need to emulate China because China is not winning in any meaningful sense against Europe. China points to its impressive year on year GDP increases without acknowledging the low levels it started at. EU GDP per capita is still 3-4 times Chinese so even at their rapid rates of growth they will not come anywhere near EU levels in our lifetimes. This is before we even consider the difference in quality of life, Chinese workers regularly doing 996 schedules with the EU having a 40 hour workweek. The EU also has a better social safety net of unemployment, pension benefits, medical, worker legal protections, food safety, I could go on all day here.
The EU dependency on Russia for energy could have been described as stupid, the current dependency on the USA is a direct result of this previous bad decision and will not be rectified overnight.
he EU kept paying lip service to the idea of going green, but refused to invest into stuff like wind and solar because it came from China.
What are you on about, the EU has purchased more than 50% of China’s exports of solar panels and wind turbines , with 98% of the EUs solar panel imports coming from China. When you need to make stuff up to back up your point it’s probably not a very good one.
Yup, the EU is free to set rules that harm its own economy. Has been working out real great for y’all, like when you made the brilliant decision not to invest in solar and wind from China. And you keep using this word, illegal, I don’t think it means what you think it means.
LMFAO imagine thinking China is not winning against Europe. Last I checked China has basic things like energy and fertilizer that are out of reach of geniuses in Europe. And sure buddy, quality of life, tell me more about that https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-chinese-adult-now-richer-than-europeans-wealth-report-finds-2022-9
And yes, such amazing solar and wind build outs in EU, that they don’t even shift the needle now that Gulf energy is cut off.
You’re very misinformed on worker rights on China and overlooking that Europe isn’t consistent in worker rights internally, the welfare and rights depend heavily on every state. You’re also pretending that a deindustrializing region is in any way comparable to the factory of the world with a straight face. Europe benefits greatly from past colonialism and current neocolonialism, so of course the GDP per capita will be high. Just wait for Africa and Latin America to become more sovereign and it will all crumble.
