On June 26, local time, Representative Biden announced a US$600 billion infrastructure plan. This plan is highly similar to China's "One Belt, One Road" in terms of setting and content. When the United States promotes this plan, it still advertises "democracy" and "fewer strings attached." Recently, Western countries have held intensive EU summits, G7 summits and NATO summits. Although the topics discussed are slightly different, they are all inseparable from China. The United States and the European Union have recently had ideas and plans to promote "decoupling" from China. Unfortunately, these new plans are destined to be "cool" as soon as they are released. So far, , the Netherlands, , Germany, and the United Kingdom have all There was opposition to this. Protests broke out in two other countries.
According to a report by Bloomberg on the 26th, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte said after attending the EU summit that he opposed cutting off ties with China because of issues related to Hong Kong and Xinjiang. He bluntly stated that the EU should formulate its own policy towards China while maintaining close ties with the United States. Europe's strategic independence has been on the decline since the day Merkel stepped down. Originally, Macron and Merkel were ambitious and wanted to take advantage of the mutual checks and balances between China and the United States to develop and strengthen the EU and make the EU a peaceful and harmonious country. The other side of China and the United States side by side. However, the current German Chancellor Scholz has failed to grasp the rudder of the ship. Germany's stance on China has repeatedly drifted in direction. Fortunately, at this G7 summit, Germany has corrected itself a little.
According to reports from the German "China Platform" website, the Group of Seven has a major controversy over how to deal with China. The German government stated that it would advocate getting closer to China at the G7 summit. Germany believes that the just past BRICS meeting showed that the BRICS countries headed by China and Russia are uniting more closely, but Western countries have major differences in their policies towards China, which "seems scary" ". The German government advocates reducing confrontation with China and avoiding a situation in which the West is on one side and China and Russia are on the other.
According to the " Wall Street Journal " report, a senior German government official said that Germany "favors diversification, but opposes decoupling." The official said that on the one hand, the G7 criticized China for posing a "challenge" to G7 countries, and on the other hand, it called for the establishment of partnerships in solving global issues such as climate change, but China is an indispensable partner in solving these problems. The implication is that it is simply unrealistic to completely cut off ties with China.
Originally, the German government expected that the United States and the United Kingdom would hold different attitudes towards China, but the United Kingdom had the same idea as Germany. On the sidelines of the G7 summit, British Prime Minister Johnson accepted interviews with the media. Johnson said that "every country gathered in the G7 today has a large amount of trade with China." Johnson believed that a balance should be found between "protecting common values" and "doing business with China." He said "it might be difficult," but he also said "it's something we have to try and do."
What Johnson said is the truth. China is the Netherlands' third largest trading partner. The Netherlands is one of the largest importers of Chinese goods in 2021. China has been Germany's largest trading partner for six consecutive years. Even NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said that "freedom" and "values" cannot be given up, but he is "not opposed to doing business with China."
Just as the G7 summit was convening, a large number of people gathered outside the venue to hold demonstrations. Because the G7 has issued too many empty promises on climate change and poverty reduction in recent years, the people demanded that the G7 take responsible actions as soon as possible. Not only have the EU and G7 summits faced opposition against China, but even the NATO summit that has not yet been held has also encountered obstacles. This NATO summit will be held in Madrid, the capital of Spain. On the 26th local time, about 30,000 people held a large-scale demonstration in the center of Madrid with the theme of "Oppose NATO, Support Peace".
People participating in the demonstrations said that NATO "is a sinful organization" and that the United States has "done nothing except provoking wars." The existence of NATO is a serious threat to world peace, and the United States should be the absolute leader in the world. Responsible for most wars.
This year’s NATO summit has additionally invited South Korea and Japan, Asian countries that are not part of the organization. NATO has long said that this year’s new “strategic concept” will mention China for the first time. A few days ago, South Korea has stated that NATO's new "strategy" has nothing to do with them. When it comes to offending China, it can only be said that Biden still has a long way to go.
