Opinion | German leader may have inspired another European member to ignore US domination
By Augustus K. Yeung
INTRODUCTION
Apart from the Russia-Ukraine conflict that arises as a result of the Biden administration's refusal to negotiate a peace settlement with Russia to address its fears that NATO is expanding its membership at Russia's expense by considering Ukraine's intention to join the ambitious bloc. President Biden is now configuring a tech war, targeting another rival, China by depriving it of advanced chips.
The United States is now pressuring the Netherlands to do the devil's bidding.
The fact that this U.S. pattern of behavior is consistent with its aggressive demands made earlier on Jacinta Ardern administration of New Zealand, it does not mean that it is moral.
There were submissive governments that had given in to American severe pressure, for example, UK under Liz Truss and the Australian administration under Scott Morrison. All these two administrators have not lived to see the day light as the two leaders were booted out by its own people.
The result is that they are now shown to be on the wrong side of history, probably never to return to UK and Australian politics as they have failed to be answerable to their own people, or parliament rather than to an American president posing as a supreme leader among leaders of a lesser god.
On the contrary, those countries such as Germany, India and now the Netherlands are sensibly exercising their good judgement, prioritizing their national interests above U.S. pressures.
The following complaints made by the Senior Dutch Minister serve to illustrate my point.
Senior Dutch Minister: Netherland Will Defend Its Interests…
The Netherland will defend its economic interests when it comes to the sales of chip equipment to China, a senior Dutch official has said, further evidence of the country's resistance to meekly following Washington's attempts to cut off China from semiconductor technology.
The European country is home to ASML Holding, which dominates the market for cutting-edge chip equipment that has become a focus of the US government's attempts to limit China.
Dutch Foreign Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher told lawmakers on Tuesday that Netherlands would make its own decision regarding ASML's chip gear sales to China amid trade rule talks with the United States and other allies.
"It is important that we defend our own interests – our national safety, but also our economic interests," Schreinemacher said.
"If we put that in an EU basket and negotiate with the US, and in the end it turns out we give away deep ultraviolet lithography machines to the US, we are worse off."
Deep ultraviolet systems are the second-most advanced chip production machines produced by ASML, and the equipment is required to make a wide range of semiconductors.
Schreinemacher's comments appeared to indicate growing Dutch objections to the US call for the Netherlands to align with Washington on export controls to undermine Beijing's ambition in building a chip industry at home and improve its military capabilities.
Dutch Minister: US Shouldn't Pressure Netherlands to Follow Its Approach…
Last week, the Dutch minister said the US should not expect the Netherlands to unquestionably adopt its approach to China export restrictions.
While ASML has not sold any of its most advanced extreme ultraviolet lithograph machines to China because the Dutch government has refused to grant it a license under US pressure, the company can still sell less sophisticated chipmaking systems to it.
However, US officials have been pressuring the Dutch government to ban the sales of immersion lithography machines, the most advanced kind of equipment in ASML's deep ultraviolet line-up, Bloomberg News has reported.
The Biden administration has been working to get allies including the Netherlands and Japan to adopt the sweeping measures it unveiled in early October to ban more chip machines for China. (Source: SCMP)
CONCLUSION
The world is seeing the same old 'America First' strategy, first advocated by the former U.S. president Donald Trump, who seems to be exerting more 'leadership' than the incumbent U.S. 'leader'. Biden has again turned out to be a follower – overshadowed by Donald Trump.
When these U.S. leaders have failed to lead, and when European leaders are not toeing the lines of their U.S. supreme leaders, it is a clear sign that new world leaders are emerging.
Olaf Scholz, the bold and wise German Chancellor, was the first European world leader to emerge and show strong leadership despite oppositions from his coalition-peers, and critics before and after his visit to China.
Jacinta Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, is another wise leader to have said "No" to the American 'lord' who attempted to pressure her to accuse China of the alleged crime of genocide that the Americans had wanted her to 'witness'. Instead, she logically argued her case, showed her great leadership ability in the nation's parliament.
Then came the Indonesian president Joko Widodo, and Hun Sen, the Cambodian Prime Minister who both defined the situation and defended ASEAN's right to manage its own problems, in a diplomatic way of telling the foreign super-power to stay out of ASEAN countries' troubles in the latest summits held in Bali, Indonesia last week.
I can see a pattern, or a trend emerging in which Washington is losing its leadership quality, day by day.
In stark contrast, China's leader was surrounded by the world's other leaders, as if they were starlets surrounding China, the brightest star of them all.
If President Joe Biden cares about his legacy, he should stop pressuring America's allies from following his selfish acts of sanctioning China in areas such as banning 'China chip gear sales' that would only hurt these countries' business opportunities with the world's second largest economy.
Instead, President Biden should be sincere; he should cooperate consistently in areas such climate change, and honestly work closely with China to bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to an end, a sensible way "to wrestle inflation to the ground", as former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau put it.
The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:
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