Macron is an embarrassment; to himself, to France and to the EU. Xi will make the right noises, acheiving the impression of “friendship” whilst laughing up his sleeve. Von Der Leyen will smile and exude the platitudes of mittel-European flannery.
The gulf in power will act like a force-field around Xi. His purpose will be to reassure himself he has nothing to worry about from such lightweights, and probably further his own belief that the system of government that can produce such facile ‘leaders’ is bankrupt.
I think he’s wrong, at least in theory, but why we in the West allow ourselves to elect such poseurs is another matter entirely.
A useful and perceptive summary of the situation. I wonder how Macron will go with the tariffs on EVs from China? There are tens of thousands of $15-20,000 EVs sitting in China ready for shipping to the US and Europe with several hundred thousand to follow. Even with 20% tariffs, these cars will undercut all of the competition by some big margins.
I suppose that EU governments, the US and the UK, will smile on this massive import of EVs which will tick many of their boxes in the advance towards Nut Zero, regardless of the coal-fired power, and steel blast furnaces, which are required to build them?
Richard Calhoun
12 days ago
“It all came to nothing, and — humiliated time and time again — Macron is now one of the most hawkish EU leaders as regards Ukraine, saying last week that he did not rule out sending French troops to fight the Russians there.”
It says it all .. Macron is a pipsqueak of a President ruled by the EU .. Xi is simply attemting to divide and rule .. it will all end in tears for Macron and the EU !
Billy Bob
12 days ago
Massive tariffs on Chinese imports is what the west should be doing. China has frequently shown that it won’t play by the rules in regards to trade so why the west keeps rewarding them is an act of colossal stupidity.
Will it hurt to decouple from China? Absolutely it will, but it will cripple the Chinese much more if they lost access to their biggest export markets
M To the Tea
12 days ago
The Chinese government does not adhere to Western norms because it seeks to avoid intervening in the internal politics of other countries, aiming to prevent these nations from interfering with the CCP business in return. The West often uses language/media as a tool of interference—thanks to the global prevalence of English, they can understand and influence the internal discussions of other countries, which is a challenge with the Chinese due to Chinese language/media barriers. Another major difference is western nations attempt to psychologically coerce other countries into submission but often not on their own people where in China is the other way around – the coercion is for domestic resistance. These approaches of wielding power are markedly different. Historically, the West succeeded in colonizing the Americas and Africa, which had less aggressive societies, but China is resistant to such forms of coercion/aggression now. It is checkmate! Additionally, cutting off China in trade could lead the West to a significant economic downturn; a scenario where the financial devastation of the 1930s would seem mild by comparison not to mention that by outsourcing machinery and manufacturing, we also outsourced how to improve and advance technology. We lost so much as average person but the elites were compensated wonderfully. They are the ones holding us back cause they would have pay for the unemployment and re-training resources.
Macron is an embarrassment; to himself, to France and to the EU. Xi will make the right noises, acheiving the impression of “friendship” whilst laughing up his sleeve. Von Der Leyen will smile and exude the platitudes of mittel-European flannery.
The gulf in power will act like a force-field around Xi. His purpose will be to reassure himself he has nothing to worry about from such lightweights, and probably further his own belief that the system of government that can produce such facile ‘leaders’ is bankrupt.
I think he’s wrong, at least in theory, but why we in the West allow ourselves to elect such poseurs is another matter entirely.
A useful and perceptive summary of the situation. I wonder how Macron will go with the tariffs on EVs from China? There are tens of thousands of $15-20,000 EVs sitting in China ready for shipping to the US and Europe with several hundred thousand to follow. Even with 20% tariffs, these cars will undercut all of the competition by some big margins.
I suppose that EU governments, the US and the UK, will smile on this massive import of EVs which will tick many of their boxes in the advance towards Nut Zero, regardless of the coal-fired power, and steel blast furnaces, which are required to build them?
“It all came to nothing, and — humiliated time and time again — Macron is now one of the most hawkish EU leaders as regards Ukraine, saying last week that he did not rule out sending French troops to fight the Russians there.”
It says it all .. Macron is a pipsqueak of a President ruled by the EU .. Xi is simply attemting to divide and rule .. it will all end in tears for Macron and the EU !
Massive tariffs on Chinese imports is what the west should be doing. China has frequently shown that it won’t play by the rules in regards to trade so why the west keeps rewarding them is an act of colossal stupidity.
Will it hurt to decouple from China? Absolutely it will, but it will cripple the Chinese much more if they lost access to their biggest export markets
The Chinese government does not adhere to Western norms because it seeks to avoid intervening in the internal politics of other countries, aiming to prevent these nations from interfering with the CCP business in return. The West often uses language/media as a tool of interference—thanks to the global prevalence of English, they can understand and influence the internal discussions of other countries, which is a challenge with the Chinese due to Chinese language/media barriers. Another major difference is western nations attempt to psychologically coerce other countries into submission but often not on their own people where in China is the other way around – the coercion is for domestic resistance. These approaches of wielding power are markedly different. Historically, the West succeeded in colonizing the Americas and Africa, which had less aggressive societies, but China is resistant to such forms of coercion/aggression now. It is checkmate! Additionally, cutting off China in trade could lead the West to a significant economic downturn; a scenario where the financial devastation of the 1930s would seem mild by comparison not to mention that by outsourcing machinery and manufacturing, we also outsourced how to improve and advance technology. We lost so much as average person but the elites were compensated wonderfully. They are the ones holding us back cause they would have pay for the unemployment and re-training resources.