“Europe is losing political and economic importance worldwide,” exclaims a law student from the audienceduring a television political debate program produced by Shanghai Media Neighborhood (SMG). “Are the European elite and public aware of this?” he asks.
Your question reflects the Chinese public’s perception of reality in Europe: economic stagnation, dependent foreign policy and lack of defense capacity. 81 years after the end of World War II, the European powers remain subject to Washington. And, despite intense efforts, they have not managed to put an end, with their own resources, to Russia’s war against Ukraine, at the gates of Europe.
In Europe, everything is connected to the United States, commented in the program, broadcast months ago, Zhang Weiwei, dean of the China Institute at the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai. “Europeans still believe that Donald Trump’s presidency is a transition period and they cannot or do not want to recognize what is happening,” Zhang said.
Loss of reality and multipolarity
Another guest, Vuk Jeremić, former president of the UN Frequent Assembly and now a professor at the French university Sciences Po, said he observed, among French intellectuals, “a lack of understanding that things in the world are changing rapidly.”
Faced with growing rivalry with the United States, which dominated practically all areas after the two world wars, China envisions a new multipolar world order for the future. And it sees itself playing a central role in shaping that future. Not alone, but with Russia and other like-minded nations. In this vision, China considers Europe as an independent pole.
Its logic is quite simple. With the United Kingdom and France, Europe has two veto options in the UN Security Council. The European single market is very attractive for the export-oriented Chinese economy. This is increasingly evident with the US trade war.
Furthermore, communist leaders in Beijing believe that European and Chinese companies can complement each other very well.. Europe still has a lot to offer technologically. China, on the other hand, has production capacity for everything at a competitive price. The economic exchange is high.
Globalization has stalled since the 1990s
Since the end of the Cold War, globalization has remained stagnant, says Ding Chun, a professor at Fudan University and director of the Shanghai Institute of European Studies. The United States, with its dominance in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, promoted economic programs in Latin America and Europe, consolidating its hegemonic power. This is known as the “Washington Consensus.”
“But times have changed,” Ding declared at a forum in Shanghai in mid-April. “Europe’s younger generation is tired of the established political system. Social media makes the outcome of elections unpredictable,” he said.
Now, China is challenging the Washington Consensus and using the United Nations as an instrument. In April, Annalena Baerbock visited Beijing. The trusty president of the UN Frequent Assembly declared that “China, as a founding member of the United Nations and permanent member of the Security Council“, plays a classic role in defending multilateralism, safeguarding international law and promoting the three pillars of peace, development and human rights,” according to a press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
In 2023, when she was Germany’s foreign minister, Baerbock referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator.” Now, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took advantage of her visit to highlight the reform of UN institutions and the establishment of the UN as a multipolar world government. “China is pleased to support them in their work,” he said.
Disasters are becoming more frequent
The first step is to raise awareness in Europe that the link with the United States has become fragile. After the Second World War, the shared existential threat posed by Soviet communism forged this alliance, according to Jeremić, who was also foreign minister of Serbia, which has been negotiating its EU accession with Brussels since 2015.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe experienced enormous prosperity for decades, Jeremić continued. It served as a model to the entire world of how to overcome the conflicts and divisions of history, how to grow together. But, in the meantime, “the crises have begun to accumulate.” The global financial crisis of 2007/08 was followed by the migratory crisis in Europe in 2015. “Then came Brexit in 2020, and the first presidency of Donald Trump, from 2017 to 2021, Jeremić summarized.
Separating from the United States remains difficult
“The EU followed the example of the United States and began to internalize NATO’s ideology: ‘Let’s keep Russia out, Germany weakened, and the United States in,’” something that did not benefit European interests, according to political scientist Zhang.
Now, reducing dependence on the United States will be very difficult. Economically, it was a serious mistake for Europe to be left behind in the so-called “Industry 4.0”, without a single European option among the top 20 high-tech web companies, Zhang observes. In Europe, which is quite wary of Chinese data providers, only American platforms are used; American companies dominate the European big data sector.
“Years ago, in China, the idea was to learn from German Industry 4.0 to perfect the Chinese industry.” The term for digital and networked industrial production was coined at the Hannover Fair in 2011. “Nowadays, no one talks about it,” says Zhang.
China’s proposal to Brussels is clear: Europe must become independent and become a pragmatic partner of the Asian giant, believes the Chinese political scientist: “Some of its main priorities are simply unattainable without economic and technological cooperation with China.”
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