Chinese growth has been scaring the West. China is not even intended to be a democracy, it is an authoritarian system that still calls itself communist -although it is as capitalist as the one that most. But The real problem is not ideological, it is geostrategic.
China threatens the primacy of the West that even Trump led the US. In fact, Washington had tried with Biden aligning by all the media to his allies to confront and contain the Asian giant, today the only one who shades his hegemony at the unipolar moment that emerged after the end of the cold war. The goal was to delay the arrival of the multipolar world. But we have inevitably entered an era of strategic competence in which China steps on the heels to the US.
So … Is China a partner a competitor, a systemic rival, or an enemy? The safe answer to this question is … the four things at once. Simply, each one emphasizes one or the other definition according to the specific political moment in which we are.
China scares NATO
For NATO at the 2002 Summit, it was closer to being an enemy than a partner. The Atlantic Alliance updated in the capital of Spain its “strategic concept”, a document that establishes its military and security strategy for the next 10 years and in which the threats faced by Western democracies are detailed. In him by direct influence of the US, The allies decided to be very aggressive with China and qualify it as “systemic challenge for euroatlant security.” It was required in the text that Beijing policies challenge the interests, security and values of the organization. “Malicious hybrid and cyber operations of the People’s Republic of China and their confrontation and misinformation rhetoric are aimed at allies and damage the safety of the alliance,” was written in that document, still in force. In fact, there was almost talk of China and Russia that had just invaded Ukraine. And it was a drastic change because in the previous strategic concept, that of 2020, NATO did not even mention China.
By then China expressed its serious concern And he said he was full of a cold war mentality and ideological bias.
The US achieved at that time that the North Atlantic Treaty organization turned its head to the Pacific. And since then Washington is tried to associate its allies of those waters – South Korea Korea Australia and New Zealand – with NATO.
And the EU?
A year before that NATO Summit, on March 12, 2019, a communication called was approved in the EU ‘A strategic perspective’ describing China at the same time as a cooperating and negotiating partner, economic competitor and systemic rival. At that time, the EU retained all the options in their relations with Beijing although it was aware of the growing imbalance of its commercial balance.
At the beginning of his mandate as a high representative of the Union, Josep Borrell, he warned: “Europe has been too naive in its relations with China.” Shortly after, during the 22nd bilateral summit between both powers, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, also warned that “we did not share the same values, political systems or approach to multilateralism.”
Everything accelerated after the unexpected World Covid-19 pandemic when we realized that We had delivered the production of strategic elements to the Asian giant And in those moments when their transportation in normal conditions had become impossible, we lacked means to replace them. Globalization had too many weak points. We were in the hands of commercially more effective powers than us, but above all with potentially divergent interests. The latter was confirmed something later, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the positioning of Beijing with Russia. The voices that called a hardening of the European position would become stronger and in the speeches of European leaders China are locking with the hardness of a systemic commercial enemy.
Interestingly, China has always referred to the EU as its partner. Without more. Typical of confucian traditions that prefer to avoid direct confrontation.
Von der Leyen tends the hand
Today, things seem to have changed with Trump’s trade war, and it seems that the phrase coined by Lord Palmerston “Nations have no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests”because the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen has maintained a Telephone conversation with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang and He has asked for “collaboration“To Beijing to” defend a free and fair trade “in the face of the steps taken by the White House.
All this coinciding with Pedro Sánchez’s trip to China That, on previous occasions, he had received criticism in the community halls for his approach to Beijing breaking the aggressiveness that the EU maintained during the Biden era. This is the third visit of the Spanish president to China in just years.
In fact, the Chinese government has assured Tuesday that Spain is “at the forefront” of the relations of the Asian giant With European countries and has extolled that both nations “have always maintained a spirit of mutual respect.”
China superpower
China is the oldest civilization in the world, with a history of more than 3,500 years that invented gunpowder, compass, paper and printing without our help. It was always an empire, in many more times more developed and cultured than any European empire … but lived inward while the old continent expanded to the confines of the planet. Even humiliating China as the British empire did with opium wars. It was the ‘century of humiliation’ is the name given to the period of China’s history that goes from 1839 to 1949. During this time, China was a victim of economic, political and territorial exploitation by Europe, Japan and the United States.
After a communist awakening that was a colossal tragedy, Today the Asian giant has finally left its borders to invade us, It’s true, but he does it without an army. It is a commercial invasion, and perhaps also underbreaker policy. Their leaders are not Democrats, but precisely because of that and for their cultural tradition, they think in terms of fifty years while Western politicians barely manage to conceive strategies of 3 or 4 years seen, always pending the following elections. China has the patience and time on its part.
((H3: Then … China is a partner, competitor, systemic rival … or enemy?))
The EU does not know yet. It all depends. But Today he needs China to resist Trump. And the enemies of my friends …
