Beijing has told Brussels not to “fantasise” that pressure will extract concessions. This came after China made a goodwill gesture in the recent hybrid-car trade deal. The European Union responded by doubling down on a proposed trade “kill switch”. The instrument follows a Franco-German proposal. It would let the bloc swiftly restrict single-market access in response to economic coercion. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen says all 27 leaders back it. Chemicals and machinery are priority sectors…
At a time when a proxy war with Russia, a likely trade war with China and acrimony with the United States are pushing the cost of living and livelihoods of ordinary Europeans to the brink, this is starting to look like a case of collective madness, a communal death drive. But China is the least of its problems.
The union faces what may be its most precarious moment. Its leaders are deeply unpopular, and its economy is sluggish. No wonder angry Europeans are hitting the streets. I have read a description of a “European Autumn”, with citizens turning on their rulers in one capital after another, much like the Arab Spring. Could Europeans become as fed up with incompetent and arrogant leaders as Arabs did?
But when in trouble, von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas do what they always do: escalate on every front.
I have been struggling to understand the European political elite’s plans. What are they hoping to achieve by this constant escalation? Do they seriously expect that the EU will survive this mess they are driving us all into? Are they really that deep into their own propaganda? I understand they themselves can always jump ship if shit really hits the fan at home, but like. Is that it? Keep driving full speed into a brick wall and hope they don’t die in the crash?
Nato expanded despite Western assurances in 1990. Washington quit the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002. The 2008 Bucharest summit promised Ukraine and Georgia eventual membership over Angela Merkel’s private objections, and [Jeffrey Sachs] said Merkel’s own memoir describes how Moscow interpreted that. Sachs called 2014 a coup in Kyiv, described the Minsk II agreement as sabotaged, and recalled telling Joe Biden’s security adviser Jake Sullivan in December 2021 to treat Moscow’s draft security proposals as an off-ramp. Sullivan, he said, cited Nato’s open-door policy.
Like these same elites have been disregarding seemingly every sensible approach by every sensible person even tangentially related to global geopolitics. They keep doing it, but why? What do they hope to win anymore? Do they not realize that, if they stay this course, they are condemning their own populations to death. You’d think that as leaders you’d fear your own populations’ wrath most. But alas, shortsightedness seems to be their most pressing problem.
