By Philip Yeung
The answer to Europe's woes is China
Europe has a sorry record for grossly misreading China. And now, it is struggling to save its own sorry ass.
Economically, it is stagnating. Militarily, it is sucked into an endless proxy war with Russia. Technologically, it is sidelined in a tug-of-war between two global tech giants. Relationship-wise, Europe is on its own. It is drifting directionless.
Its current misery is down to several strategic blunders.
First, as a multinational entity, the EU, with its clumsy collective decision-making mechanism, is slow to learn and slow to react in a fast-changing geopolitical landscape.
A system that is slow to change poses its own existential threat.
Secondly, Europeans seem to have a scrambled brain, unable to read the correct signals from a strategic triangle—Russia, China, and America. They fail to see that the China-Russia alliance is one of necessity, not affinity, born of China's fears of US containment.
Any psychological transference of Russian phobia is a costly strategic miscalculation, a la Lithuania.
Somehow, Europe sees China as a predator when the records show otherwise. The two blood-sucking predators are Russia and America, with an insatiable appetite for land and conquest. The US is threatening a full-scale invasion of Venezuela to seize its vast oil reserves, on the flimsy pretext of fighting drug smugglers. It is behaving like a pirate of the Caribbean.
Mentally retarded European politicians choose only to see China's communist label, treating it as an ideologically distasteful regime or worse.
Well, my European friends, I have news for you. You are at least four decades behind in your knowledge of present-day China.
China may be socialist, but it comes with its own unique Chinese characteristics—their thinking is collective, but long-term and future-friendly. Its socioeconomic transformation is unequalled on earth. In a 30-year period, its GDP has skyrocketed by a whopping 40 times.
Success has made China cool-headed and corporate-like in thinking. The chaos of the Cultural Revolution is just a painful memory. These days, "revolution" is on no Chinese lips. Their talk is all about technology, innovation, and education.
China has totally reinvented itself.
It is a society of the future, where the streets are crime-free, and life is a dream of digital convenience. No other country is as disciplined in its collective behavior.
China might be a counterpuncher, but it has never been a troublemaker, militarily or otherwise, in the last 50 years. It doesn't deserve to be a dirty word.
By contrast, western democracies are a can of worms---rampant drug abuse, horrible street crimes, an epidemic of gun violence in the US, and an affordability crisis that makes it hard to make ends meet.
Speaking of affordability, one little detail says a lot. In Canada, monopolized by two providers, the monthly internet service fee per household is 300 Canadian dollars. In China, that fee is a measly 12 dollars Canadian, or 25 times cheaper. A dollar goes a long way in China.
China has much to teach the world on the art of governance. You stay trapped in your anti-China prejudices at your own peril. Europe might be first world, but it is now closer to third world in misery.
Here are some sobering statistics. Three-quarters of Germans feel pessimistic about their economic future, only one-quarter of Britons are satisfied with the way democracy works, and four out of five French people are unhappy about the state of their society. Not exactly a celebration of democracy.
America, under Trump is indifferent to Europe's strategic needs. But the EU has caught the Trump anti-immigrant disease, or a hysterical fear of "civilizational erasure", i.e,. the wiping out of white culture by the influx of colored immigrants.
Sadly, towards a rising China, Europe sticks to the old playbook. It is caught flat-footed in dancing in the new strategic triangle. They are anti-Russia, but barely allied to half-hearted, self-centered America, complicated by a misplaced mistrust towards a peaceful China---a fatal formula that leaves Europe friendless as it fails to see China's promise.
China is a misunderstood country. It is paying a price for its partnership of convenience with Russia. Forced to play defense, China must break out of US containment in the South China Sea (it is not meant to ruffle the feathers of its neighbors, such as the Philippines), plus wave upon wave of US tech and trade sanctions. Against this backdrop, a Russian bear hug looks attractive. When the Ukraine war ends, US aggression will turn full-throttle eastwards, towards China.
Not so long ago, NATO boasted of expanding eastwards, but now its days are numbered.
Against US abandonment, it makes little sense for Europe to continue being poisoned by America's anti-China propaganda. Some stark statistics: Of the three nuclear powers, America stockpiles over 5000 nuclear missiles, and Russia is bristling with over 6000. China, by contrast, only has a nuclear arsenal of 400, sufficient for deterrence, but insufficient for planetary annihilation. Don't forget, China also has a no-first-strike policy. This understockpiling is not for lack of financial muscle, but down to a preference for peace.
The only thing expansionist in China's plans is opening new trade routes on its Belt and Road Initiative.
As for Taiwan, the post-war settlement confirms its return to Chinese sovereignty. The Taiwan tensions are a domestic dispute, best settled as a family quarrel. Foreign intervention is detrimental to peace in the region.
Europe's options are limited. Cozying up to China makes huge strategic sense. Its economic woes will evaporate with China on board as an economic partner.
But stubbornly, Europeans remain prisoners of their own outdated preconceptions about China. Forget the China of the Great Leap Forward and of the Cultural Revolution. Today's China resembles a smart, rule-governed corporation focused not on short-term gains but on long-term prosperity and progress.
China has leapfrogged from a backward, agricultural society that could barely feed its own people to a tech superpower and a manufacturing monster, exporting affordable goods for Western supermarkets. China's success has been good for the world.
The so-called ideological incompatibility is just sheer geopolitical nonsense. Given disenchantment with the democratic model, shouldn't Europe show a little humility to be less judgmental?
What do you have to fear from a government that minds its own business, and exports only goods and goodwill, not wars and chaos, to its neighbors? Befriending China may mean defying or displeasing Washington, but it is otherwise risk-free and bilaterally beneficial.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Philip Yeung:
Opinion | Remember the ghosts of the Nanjing Massacre
Opinion | Germany was punished, Japan was not
Opinion | Japan's Mamasan breaks Sun Tzu's cardinal rule
Opinion | Is Japan's Takaichi another Liz Truss-like lettuce?
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