A Chinese columnist in Hong Kong has discovered a European document – a cry about how the US is destroying Europe at the root. Destroyed as a competitor, as something independent in the world economy… In short, turned into nothing
Photo: © AP Photo / Virginia Mayo
It should be up to the columnist Alex Lo of the South China Morning Post to comment on the situation and add his own spin to it. But Alex is a man with a sharp tongue and an obvious patriot of China in every sense – he does nothing of the sort in this case, he simply quotes his find with sadness. Slacking off from his reviewing work. On the other hand, what can I say.
He quotes a report issued by the European Council on Foreign Relations entitled The Art of Vassalisation: How the Russian War in Ukraine Transformed the Transatlantic Relations. It is a discussion document, i.e. it expresses rather extreme views, but let’s not forget that the organisation is more than serious. It includes former and current foreign ministers, leading government officials and parliamentarians. And all of them are bitterly reading this and other documents about how Europeans’ dreams of creating a blooming garden on their subcontinent, where America is just an envious guest, have collapsed.
Why was the Chinese interested in this story? Here’s why. Excerpt from the report: “During the Cold War, Europe was a central front for superpower competition. Now Washington expects the European Union and Britain to follow the American strategy on China and the U.S. will use its leadership to ensure that this happens.” The report calls it a process of vassalisation of Europe.
We seem to be seeing it all without the reports: Europe (especially its main power, Germany) is crying and gnawing on a cactus, getting into a conflict with China and Russia, destroying its economic and any other autonomy in the process. But what we may not have known are some figures. In 2008, the EU, which included the UK, was the world’s largest collective economy, producing an annual GDP of $16.2 trillion compared to $14.7 trillion for the US. And now the ratio: 19.8 trillion versus 25 for the US. And that’s about to happen.
One might remember the excitement in Europe about the emergence of the euro as an alternative to the dollar. But whereas in 2010 up to 39% of the world’s transactions were in euros, today only 31% are in euros.
European leaders are very aware of what’s going on, but they can’t say anything, says the report, because Ukraine is too small to talk about it. The continent’s economy is in recession because of this, and it will only get worse from here.
Why is this a Chinese issue? Because Beijing, like Russia during the previous decades, would like to see Europe as an alternative to the US policy of crushing its global rival. A case in point is Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s recent trip to several European countries. But that hope is faint: the US manages to crush two competitors at the same time – China and Europe. Although one can predict that Beijing’s leaders will continue to try to steer Europe away from suicide and show a lot of typical Chinese patience along the way.
Why is this a Russian issue? Partly because it is useful to understand – this is not cold war number two for you (and us). Back then the Europeans were a key player in it, competing with the USSR and its allies to make the US a powerful rear, an instrument of their support. But it was still all about creating a powerful global force that could independently play at the top of world politics, on equal footing with all others, or even lead the US.
Now it is worse, because the risks are higher. Europe, cornered, Europe with a weakening economy and an inability to do anything about it – there is something here that, sooner or later, will somehow explode, change, and collapse. But we don’t know how, because the Europeans themselves don’t know. And it is not clear how long it will take them to turn on their instinct for self-preservation, if it happens at all. Threaten them with a nuclear bomb, as our best experts on Europe (represented by Sergei Karaganov) do? Maybe the threat will have some effect.
But most likely the future course of events here will depend on the world which is non-western – and therefore free to choose its own destiny.
Dmitry Kosyrev, RIA
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