International Issues Observer Qi Sheng
Local time December 1, 2022, Washington, DC, United States, US President Joe Biden and French President Macron walk on the colonnade of the White House . Visual China Picture
21 Salute, more than 200 Maine lobsters, 350 Dinner guests in tuxedo and long skirts, the Biden administration welcomed the visiting French President Macron with the specifications of the state visit, grand and gorgeous pomp, and enthusiastic speeches, saying that the US hopes to show the "lasting friendship" between the two countries. But in fact, compared to "lasting friendship", this visit exposed more of the fragile and deteriorating "partnership" relationship between the United States and Europe.
Macron said in his interview that he hoped to be respected by the United States as a good friend, but the subsidy measures related to the Inflation Reduction Act passed by the United States in August this year are "very aggressive" to European companies and "will kill a large number of job opportunities in Europe." He said bluntly, "You may have solved your own problems, but increased our problems." Recently, there are more than this kind of "damaging Europe and benefiting the United States". Macron not long ago also criticized the United States for selling natural gas to Europe at a price of four times its local price, which is not the "true meaning of friendship." A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council responded, "The rise in natural gas prices in Europe is caused by the situation in Russia and Ukraine and the energy war on Europe. The United States' exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe have increased sharply, which can help Europe get rid of Russia's threat." It has a sense of being cheap and being good-looking.
In short, on the one hand, the United States has subsidized the local new energy industry with high subsidies, which may attract a large number of European companies to move to the United States; on the other hand, it sells traditional energy at high prices to Europe, resulting in a significant increase in the cost of living for European people. It can be said that the difficult winter that European countries are facing is closely related to the "two-strength" of the old friend of Uncle Sam . Although the United States sang a hymn of friendship, it does not seem to plan to seriously resolve the concerns about friends. Biden insists that neither the United States nor himself will apologize for the Inflation Cut Act, but expressed his willingness to "fine-tune", but then White House Press Secretary denied that there were any plans to return to Congress to make changes to the bill. The six-hour ministerial meeting of the US-European Trade and Technology Council also failed to bridge the huge differences between the two sides on the discriminatory subsidy policy of the US.
For a long time, Europe has been complacent about maintaining a special intimacy with the United States. Although it is claimed to be strategically independent, it is facing the US side openly and secretly under the banner of enjoying common values with the US side in the Sino-US game. After being slapped in the face again and again, Europe should be clearly aware that common values do not equal common interests. From Trump to Biden, from "making America great again" to "rebuilding a better America", no matter how you change the packaging, the United States is essentially preferred. Whether it is for allies or opponents, the way the United States improves its competitiveness is to undermine fair competition. Isn’t this unilateralism, protectionism, hegemony and hegemony contrary to the multilateralist values of Europe?
Macron warned that discriminatory subsidies in the United States may become the crux of US-European relations, leading to the split of Western world . But there was no Western world with a so-called community of interests. The United States curbs and suppresses China not for the sake of the Western world, but for the purpose of maintaining its hegemony. The hegemony of the United States is not a blessing from Europe. On the contrary, Europe may become a victim of American hegemony at any time. British Foreign Minister Hammerston famously said in the last century, "There are no eternal friends, only eternal interests." After his own interests were harvested by the United States again and again, it is time for Europe to think about whether to be Uncle Sam's unjust friends.
This issue is edited by Zou Shan
