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The Wuhan Virus Is Finally Awakening Europe To China’s Imperialism: when you have lost the support of both the Germany and UK, you will possibly lose the rest of Europe
The Federalist ^ | 04/21/2020 | Sumantra Maitra

Posted on 04/21/2020 5:29:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

German political culture is the most passive-aggressive on the continent. German politicians rarely raise their voices or act animatedly. German media, right and left, avoid jingoism.

Their history dictates that Germans generally value public propriety and a calm demeanor much more than in their hyper-aggressive past. It doesn’t mean Germans have lost their political intelligence; they essentially dominate the continent, after all. But it does mean Germans care about how they look and are perceived a lot more than the French or the Anglo-Americans do. One can like or dislike this historical change, but it remains a fact.

It will, therefore, come as a surprise that in the largest German newspaper lately, one can read some of the strongest language against China. As calls for reparation grew in Germany, echoing those from elsewhere in Europe, the Chinese Embassy wrote a strong open letter “reminding” Germans of their “historic friendship.”

That resulted in an editorial in Bild, the largest newspaper in Germany, accusing the Chinese of imperialism. Bild editor Julian Reichelt recorded a video and wrote the editorial accusing Chinese leader Xi Jinping of surveillance and other crimes.

“Your embassy tells me that I am not living up to the ‘traditional friendship of our peoples,’” Reichelt wrote, adding, “I suppose you consider it a great ‘friendship’ when you now generously send masks around the world. This isn’t friendship, I would call it imperialism hidden behind a smile — a Trojan Horse.” Reichelt added, “You plan to strengthen China through a plague that you exported. You will not succeed.”

A separate opinion in Welt am Sonntag, another German newspaper, accused the World Health Organization of being Beijing’s mouthpiece and asked democratic countries to stand up against the corruption of institutions by authoritarian powers.

The Global Landscape Is Changing

There’s a political stir in the United Kingdom, as the British government paid China $20 million for faulty test kits. Now the former head of the MI6 has declared that China hid the details of the Wuhan virus and therefore is solely responsible, which is seen as Great Britain hardening its stance against Chinese influence. Beijing is about to realize that when you have lost the support of both the Germans and the British, you will possibly lose the rest of Europe.

How much this changes future global competition remains to be seen, but Asia is ahead of Europe and America in the curve. In fact, America is absent from this for some reason, which is incredible, given President Donald Trump’s inherent skepticism of Chinese trade.

Japan is leading a global effort to fund the reestablishment of diverse supply chains and end the Chinese monopoly and death grip over the civilized world. The Chinese government now fears that this Japanese-led economic package could lead to an exodus of Chinese manufacturing and redistribute it among different Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries so no one country has any monopoly over goods.

India has restructured foreign direct investment rules to stop Chinese firms from investing or buying Indian land or businesses. Even Australia is debating curtailing Chinese students in Australian universities, the major source of higher-ed funding. While direct reparation is not possible from China without the threat of a world war, cutting Chinese monopoly and manufacturing, as well as breaking up corrupt international institutions, is a good way of making China pay for all the deaths and economic losses.

The Great Power Rivalry Is Back

But it is ironic to see Europeans realizing some hard historic truths. It takes either grave historical ignorance or utter idiocy to believe history is monodirectional, but for some reason, Europeans believed in the liberal arc of history bending inevitably toward an egalitarian, progressive, nationless future, trusting the Pinkerian idea that economics trumps geopolitics and that one can survive in a world of great powers simply by subscribing to the rule of law and valuing norms.

Europeans are not alone. Many in the D.C. foreign policy establishment still desire a return to the liberal world order of the ’90s and early 2000s. Hundreds of foreign policy professionals in Europe and the Americas who grew up studying the same idiotic theories under the same liberal professors, and then mindlessly regurgitating them as talking points, now repeat the same argument for a “liberal order.” Unfortunately, this virus and subsequent Chinese profiteering drove a stake through that half-dead idea.

Europeans are now realizing, just as some Americans, that the old wisdom of great power rivalry is back. The actors might change, but the game remains the same. It is hitting the European political establishment harder than expected, as their entire postmodern worldview is predicated on free trade and the weakening of martial prowess and national borders. International institutions are not saving them from creeping Chinese hegemony — in fact, these institutions are facilitating it.

That American-led order that results in gnashing teeth and disdain in European capitals about U.S. demands for burden-sharing in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is far, far better than the glimpse of the Chinese-dominated system evident the last few months.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: brexit; china; coronavirus; eu; europeanunion; germany; imperialism; uk; unitedkingdom

1 posted on 04/21/2020 5:29:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Took too long. Paid way too much.


2 posted on 04/21/2020 5:30:06 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Let’s say you DEMAND payment from China, how are you going to actually force them to pay?

Germany?

UK?

How do you do it?


3 posted on 04/21/2020 5:33:34 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind
”...the DC foreign policy establishment...” i.e. the imbeciles who for forty years got us into this global dumpster fire.
4 posted on 04/21/2020 5:35:20 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard (Power is more often surrendered than seized)
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To: SeekAndFind

You cancel your debt to them and seize their assets within your borders.

Exactly like the Communist Chinese did to western investors repeatedly in the past.

Or are you too young to remember?


5 posted on 04/21/2020 5:46:12 PM PDT by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
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To: SeekAndFind

Just be patient, Red China. Eventually most of the world will crawl back to you. After all, you can produce widgets two cents cheaper than anyone else can. The West has a short memory. They will embrace you once again.


6 posted on 04/21/2020 5:47:09 PM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: hinckley buzzard
Screw Nixon. He should have been impeached for kidding Mao’s but.
7 posted on 04/21/2020 6:03:06 PM PDT by cowboyusa (America Cowboy Up)
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To: MrEdd

“Or are you too young to remember?”

He probably thinks that this ChiCom fiasco is going to be settled in some international court at the Hague by lawyers and judges.


8 posted on 04/21/2020 6:17:29 PM PDT by wmarshalllives3 (Free people always face censorship)
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To: cowboyusa

Julian Reichelt’s editorial and video is admirably succinct and quite devastating. I accessed it through a story on American Thinker’s blog. It’s worth any patriot’s time.


9 posted on 04/21/2020 6:18:36 PM PDT by Nothingburger
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To: Nothingburger

Bloomberg takes notice. even the Greens are waking up!

22 Apr: Bloomberg: China’s Coronavirus Diplomacy Has Finally Pushed Europe Too Far
by Alan Crawford and Peter Martin; With assistance by Patrick Donahue
EU is looking to diversify supply chains to cut China reliance
5G, strategic investments in focus after ‘offensive’ approach
Diplomats talk of mounting anger over China’s behavior during the coronavirus pandemic including claims of price gouging by Chinese suppliers of medical equipment and a blindness to how its actions are perceived. The upshot is that Beijing’s handling of the crisis has eroded trust just when it had a chance to demonstrate global leadership.

“Over these months China has lost Europe,” said Reinhard Buetikofer, a German Green party lawmaker who chairs the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China. He cited concerns from China’s “truth management” in the early stages of the virus to an “extremely aggressive” stance by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing and “hard line propaganda” that champions the superiority of Communist Party rule over democracy...

While the Trump administration has resumed its swipes at China, European officials are traditionally less willing to be openly critical, in part for fear of retribution. The fact that politicians in Berlin, Paris, London and Brussels are expressing concern over Beijing’s narrative on Covid-19 hints at a deeper resentment with wide-ranging consequences...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-21/china-s-coronavirus-diplomacy-has-finally-pushed-europe-too-far


10 posted on 04/21/2020 6:35:05 PM PDT by MAGAthon ( Fauc)
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To: cowboyusa

And Kissinger.


11 posted on 04/21/2020 6:49:44 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear ("Progressives" (elitist Communists) "Love you to death".)
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To: MAGAthon

Thanks for that post.

I know there’s a lot of cynicism on these threads, mostly predicting that once this crisis dies down, it will be business as usual with the Chicoms — that is, endless exploitation of Western nations desperate for cheap Chinese-manufactured junk.

The problem with seers, soothsayers, and readers of animal entrails is that all they usually can do is extrapolate from current trends.

But history always doesn’t move in predictable straight lines. No self-styled prophet can see the bends and forks in the road.

Could the West be at such a juncture with the Chicoms? I’m keeping up with the news and keeping my mind open.


12 posted on 04/21/2020 6:55:34 PM PDT by Nothingburger
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To: SeekAndFind

Possibly??


13 posted on 04/21/2020 7:41:14 PM PDT by Crucial
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To: SeekAndFind

When German newspapers start writing editorials that I agree with, I immediately question my axioms.


14 posted on 04/21/2020 7:45:39 PM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: Nothingburger
Very succinct. “You plan to strengthen China through a plague that you exported. You will not succeed.”

The US has now suffered over 15 9/11s with a weapon of mass destruction. Another weapon sent to us by airplanes.

The CCP & PLA ≠ Mandate of Heaven and our policy must be accordingly.
15 posted on 04/21/2020 8:06:43 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
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To: Nothingburger

I have been reading and watching a lot of foreign media regarding this crisis and there is a lot of anger towards China with very few defending them.

I think for the majority of the public in Western nations there is great anger towards China. Let’s face it.... how can you defend your actions when you cancel domestic travel from one of your own provinces, but fail to cancel international travel from the same province. This is a fact and one can only conclude that it was deliberate.

What it means in the long term is anybody’s best guess as you say, but I am optimistic that many more eyes have been opened and it will be harder for politicians in the West to keep their nose jammed up Xi’s bum.


16 posted on 04/21/2020 8:56:24 PM PDT by volunbeer (Find the truth and accept it - anything else is delusional)
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To: SeekAndFind

they will get nothing but more virus from China, cut them off like Iran worldwide, if its war, its war, would be coming anyway, why wait until they are stronger.


17 posted on 04/21/2020 8:58:38 PM PDT by aces (and)
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To: Leaning Right
Just be patient, Red China. Eventually most of the world will crawl back to you. After all, you can produce widgets two cents cheaper than anyone else can. The West has a short memory. They will embrace you once again.

Not really. There's lots of places cheaper than China, just not as built up or with the government authority. There's decent amounts of stuff that have been moving out of China, because the Chinese standard of living has been slowly increasing, making Chinese sweatshops more expensive than some other SE Asian countries, or many places in Africa. China still has the advantage with existing manufacturing, and their ability for gov't to simply do stuff. (You thirty factories, you now make this product. Oh, we need a new city. And, it's built in three months.) But between existing Chinese prices coming up, and this virus, I don't see too many people coming back to them over time. Especially with Europe starting to get pissed.
18 posted on 04/22/2020 8:10:15 AM PDT by Svartalfiar
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To: Nothingburger

It is going to take a very long time for the world to forget this virus and China’s role in allowing to to spread throughout the world. I might go as far as to say it will be a force that guides foreign policy towards China for the rest of our lifetimes.


19 posted on 04/22/2020 8:11:19 AM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
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To: SeekAndFind

It is my belief that Europe was

The future is East Of Suez and in some manner that will include China. It also includes the USA which is in fact East Of Suez

The Pacific rim Nations will benefit from the changes underway. China will degrade but not die. India? Can’t tell. There may not be the will.

The question is will the people of China insist on change in the government?

The people in Europe demand a status quo that is letting them be passes up by younger more ambitious populations


20 posted on 04/22/2020 8:19:39 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Progressives are existential American enemies)
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