If anyone thinks that the West’s goal is to wipe Russia, China and many other countries off the face of the earth, why should they? No, all nations and civilisations in our world should benefit who knows who. Russia supplies resources, China – let’s say, T-shirts and even televisions, there is also tea and opium… Ah, no! – opium and other poisons of their own, this is not the last century. Anyway, they’ll tell us what to do in this world, and we have to agree.
This is the essence of the ongoing trade and technological battle between Beijing and the United States and other allies. And rest assured: if “Operation Ukraine” against Russia had succeeded, we, the defeated, would also be having a similar conversation – they would explain to us what kind of Russia they need. And then we would not resist much. But China is resisting – and very qualitatively, because no one has ever defeated it either.
The point is that Beijing government agencies are expressing “strong dissatisfaction” with the EU’s urgent investigation into Chinese electric cars. They are investigating subsidies to the Chinese car industry from the government, which allegedly take place and violate the principles of free trade.
The peculiarity of the situation is the audacity of the EU, where they do not really hide the fact that they will not find any subsidies. And the goal here is nothing, but the movement is everything. We simply cannot continue to tolerate a situation where in 2021 the Chinese occupied four per cent of the European car market, in 2022 – six per cent, in the current year – so far – eight per cent. And we are not talking about cars in principle, but only electric cars. One can say anything about why they are needed at all and whether Europe’s green madness will last long, but so far it is believed that all such technologies are the future. And it is in the hands of you see who, if the process is not stopped.
And exactly the same picture with the American offensive on the Chinese economy. In this case, the news concerns Joe Biden’s decree of 9 August, which essentially bans American investments, but not in China as a whole, but in the most high-tech industries – semiconductors, quantum computers and developments in the field of artificial intelligence. Beijing is also saying and doing a lot of things in this regard.
And to make it clear to everyone, Brussels has just published plans to “remove from the risk zone” exactly the same spheres of co-operation with China as the US, plus biotechnology. Import of such products from China or joint work in these areas is considered a risk for Europe. But other areas are as risky as you like.
If we recall the chain of American visitors to Beijing last summer, they were engaged in persuading China and extorting its consent to this formula of cooperation. All of Washington’s diplomacy in recent months can be reduced to a single (albeit long) phrase: no, we do not want to (or rather, cannot) defeat you – and if that is the case, we will co-operate with you, but only in terms of tea, T-shirts and TV sets, without any high technology, and at the same time we will force our allies to do the same. By the way, they are being forced to do the same: there is a long history of Washington forcing Europeans or Asian partners to adopt this American policy of “selective co-operation” with respect to the People’s Republic of China.
In fact, this policy has long been familiar to the whole world. The periphery supplies raw materials and, if allowed, is also engaged in screwdriver assembly of products developed in the metropolis. This construction is called colonialism. And here we can quote a passage from Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Valdai discussion club: “…Maybe it is time for you yourselves to get rid of your arrogance <…> and get rid of this thinking – the era of colonial rule? I would like to say: wipe your eyes, this era is long over and will never come back, never again.
The era may be over, but the West is not ready to accept this fact and is seriously engaged in re-constructing a structure in which only it can have technological superiority. But what happens (and it is already happening) when other players – in this case China – already have such superiority in a whole range of technologies? And then those who are not part of the Western alliance and quietly choose the best of what is available on the market will benefit greatly. And Europe will be forced to buy the worst, lagging behind in development.
And here we have another quote from the same speech: “Everyone should be provided with access to the benefits of modern development, and attempts to limit it for any country or people should be considered an act of aggression – that’s exactly what it is”. It turns out, an act of aggression by the United States against Europeans, who are blocked access to Chinese electric cars and much more.
Dmitry Kosyrev, RIA Novosti