The gist of the event is that the date for the visit has finally been announced. That is, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will travel to China this coming week, November 4, at the head of a powerful delegation of heads of leading German corporations
It will not be very interesting to sum up the results of the visit because all such visits to China end very simply: the political leader speaks politics and the heads of corporations walk away with big smiles while clutching multi-billion dollar contracts. After all, one of the two largest markets in the world is no small thing.
The main thing about this trip happened even before the date was announced. The main thing was a fierce discussion, especially in Europe, about the very foundations of European existence, although in China they followed the discussion very carefully, if not with a wicked chuckle.
The story began more than a week ago. At that time the EU summit was called, we should remember, at which the evil Baltic dwarfs attacked Germany with warnings: no “separate deals” with Beijing, Scholz should not go there. Europe must speak with one voice – ours.
Shortly before the summit, Josep Borrel, head of European diplomacy, reminded the whole of Europe that its protracted prosperity rested on two pillars – cheap energy from Russia and a Chinese manufacturing base, including a base for European corporations operating there. And that, Borrell said, was too bad. Well, we have sorted out one pillar, energy carriers, now we are on to the other.
It is important to understand here that Europe might have been united, but when it is frankly offered to kill itself by the US, a crack appears in the unity. Europe’s first trading partner back in 2020 was China, but the same Baltics, Poland and others have not been very active with China, so it was easy for them to bend to the Germans, who were leading in such ties, and the French, Italians and others.
The result was a plot called “old Europeans revolt against the US”. It got so far that French President Emmanuel Macron wanted to go to Beijing with Scholz, but Scholz allegedly rejected the idea. Moreover, the chancellor has tried to play down the effect of his sortie at all – he is travelling to Asia as a whole, including Vietnam and Singapore, and after China will go to Indonesia, where a summit of the world’s leading twenty economies is due to take place.
What is perhaps most interesting here is the mechanics by which Europe’s first economy is being destroyed in every conceivable way. It would be too simple and rude to make a direct phone call from Washington and order to transfer all production to us, to the USA, and to forget about your former happiness. Though, they act this way as well, and through those Baltic and other proxies of the USA. But there is a much more subtle method – to undermine Germany from inside, through its agents of influence, to destroy its society and political system.
And this is what was happening before Scholz’s decision to go to Beijing after all: not an external enemy, but the Greens and the Free Democrats themselves boycotted all ties with China and prevented him (and the business leaders) from going. And yet Scholz’s government coalition depends entirely on these two parties, in particular the economy minister is a Green, etc.
This whole internal fifth column is expressed like this: “the Federal Chancellor acts as if nothing has changed in China”, his trip is “the wrong signal to external and internal audiences”.
What has actually changed in China? Maybe someone there has offended some Ukrainians? Attacked Taiwan? Imagine, to the list of Beijing’s crimes was added the XXth Party Congress with the re-election of Xi Jinping. Although proclaimed as far back as 2017 in the US, that very list was surprisingly long – and false. That is, there would be a goal of keeping Europe from depending on anyone but the US, and the ideological justifications could be whatever they want.
But who are these people who have no pity for their country, who are not afraid of its de-industrialisation, freezing, unemployment, loss of engineering schools and other disasters? The Chinese media accurately labels them as “radical ideologues” and “ideological snipers”, no matter the parties. For these people, the ideal is a green economy (without redundant industries), for them it is OK to roll the country back decades, as long as they do not depend on oil and gas, “autocrats” and “totalitarian rulers” from other civilisations.
Ideologues of all kinds can be entertaining and appealing to the public up to the point where they move from philosophy to practical steps. Then it invariably turns out that their ideas about the good are so good that they can and should be used to force others – millions and hundreds of millions of people – to do something they do not want to do. To force by brainwashing, by repressive laws, by political manoeuvres, no matter how. And it does not matter how such people are called – democrats, liberals, radical leftists – their methods are the same: to force, to impose.
Today, this public in the West, without any jokes, is reviving the argument from the 50s that it is better to be dead than red. (The formula itself is attributed to the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, one of the ideologues of détente with the USSR, although Russell thought that being red was somehow better, if there was no other choice.) But today’s “ideological snipers” are themselves willing to suffer for the sake of the right ideology, and most importantly, they make others suffer as well.
And to conclude – on the price of the issue. China has been Germany’s number one trade partner for six years now (almost ten percent of its trade turnover). Up to 30 percent of the cargo entering the port of Hamburg comes from China (and there has been a long, separate story to prevent Chinese business from taking a stake in the port industry). Total EU trade with the Asian giant revolves around the figure of 800 billion dollars a year, and it has grown impressively – by nine percent in the past year – while investments in both directions have topped 270 billion, with Germany in particular leading in terms of investments in China.
All of this must be destroyed to complete the operation of bankrupting Europe, starting with Berlin.
Dmitry Kosyrev, RIA