Europe Once Saw Xi Jinping as a Hedge Against Trump. Not Anymore.
Europe Once Saw Xi Jinping as a Hedge Against Trump. Not Anymore.
Last month, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel of Germany warned
that China was pursuing its own model of world order and attempting "to put a Chinese stamp on the world and impose a Chinese system, a real global system but not like ours, based on human rights and individual liberties." Mr. Gabriel was especially concerned about China’s "One Belt, One Road" initiative, a huge infrastructure project promoted by Mr. Xi to expand Chinese power by developing new trade routes, including in Europe.
China said that Wit
But a year later, European leaders are confronted with the reality
that Mr. Xi could also be a threat to the global system, rather than a great defender.
"The new worry is that because China is trying to make this format work, it will invest less effort
and money into its relationship with Brussels." Both Germany and France have been pushing the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, to draw up stricter investment screening regulations to better protect European companies and European security.
"The Western world now understands that we have to take China’s push out into the world much more seriously than we have in the past." Mr. Trump’s declaration
that he will impose swinging tariffs on imported steel will hurt Europe more than China, another example of how Europe is getting caught between Washington and Beijing.
The abolition of the two-term limit for the presidency, which could make Mr. Xi China’s ruler for life and which is expected to be ratified this week by China’s legislature, has punctured the hope
that China would become "a responsible stakeholder" in the global order.
But if moving closer to China once seemed like a smart hedge, at least while Mr. Trump
was in office, now Mr. Xi also presents a problem — and he may not be going away.
that America always has, but with Trump we’ve gone missing, and nature abhors a vacuum.
Last month, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel of Germany warned
that China was pursuing its own model of world order and attempting "to put a Chinese stamp on the world and impose a Chinese system, a real global system but not like ours, based on human rights and individual liberties." Mr. Gabriel was especially concerned about China’s "One Belt, One Road" initiative, a huge infrastructure project promoted by Mr. Xi to expand Chinese power by developing new trade routes, including in Europe.
China said that Wit
But a year later, European leaders are confronted with the reality
that Mr. Xi could also be a threat to the global system, rather than a great defender.
"The new worry is that because China is trying to make this format work, it will invest less effort
and money into its relationship with Brussels." Both Germany and France have been pushing the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, to draw up stricter investment screening regulations to better protect European companies and European security.
"The Western world now understands that we have to take China’s push out into the world much more seriously than we have in the past." Mr. Trump’s declaration
that he will impose swinging tariffs on imported steel will hurt Europe more than China, another example of how Europe is getting caught between Washington and Beijing.
The abolition of the two-term limit for the presidency, which could make Mr. Xi China’s ruler for life and which is expected to be ratified this week by China’s legislature, has punctured the hope
that China would become "a responsible stakeholder" in the global order.
But if moving closer to China once seemed like a smart hedge, at least while Mr. Trump
was in office, now Mr. Xi also presents a problem — and he may not be going away.
that America always has, but with Trump we’ve gone missing, and nature abhors a vacuum.