On July 1, 2022, China Eastern Airlines , Air China, China Southern Airlines three airlines purchased 292 Airbus A320NEO aircraft from the European Airbus Company. The prices were US$12.796 billion, US$12.213 billion, and US$12.248 billion respectively. The total amount US$37.257 billion.
This deal is interesting, and of course it is a need for the Chinese civil aviation industry. Although China's civil aviation industry has faced many difficulties in recent years, the overall thinking continues. China's civil aviation needs more brand-new aircraft with a younger age to enrich its fleet. Although the technical problems of the Boeing 737MAX 2 series have been roughly solved, the trust in Boeing 737MAX 2 has indeed been greatly reduced. Compared with Boeing 737MAX, Airbus A320Neo has more stable performance and is indeed a good choice.
Of course, Americans don’t think so. They believe that the deterioration of Sino-US relations caused the order to be left to Airbus. This is also true to a certain extent. After all, Airbus has a competitive relationship with Boeing, and Airbus's large orders are naturally not very friendly to the United States.
China’s big strategy has not changed now, which is to pull Europe to fight against the United States and Britain.
European interests have shown characteristics of being out of sync with the United States after the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This is evident from the embarrassing situation of France and Germany. Europe's current stance on China has actually softened, including some statements by the Belgian Prime Minister directly saying that "China is an important trading partner of Europe." Therefore, it should be said that if the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues, the price Europe will pay for following the United States will be higher. It is getting bigger and bigger, which is in great contrast with Biden Europe's expectations for the restoration of transatlantic relations when Biden came to power. There is a possibility that Europe's stance towards China will gradually soften, which for China means that continental European countries still have the possibility of stabilization.
The core of China-EU relations lies in the relationship between China, France and Germany. Leaders of China, France and Germany have also held online meetings and maintained a certain frequency of interaction. What is more worrying now is the stardom of French politics and the lack of strategic capabilities behind it, as well as the pan-moralistic tendencies of left-wing idealists such as the Green Party in the new German government team. What is gratifying is that compared to the performance of the European media, the European business community still behaves more rationally.
The transatlantic relationship is so deep that the U.S. Department of Commerce can even exercise long-arm jurisdiction over the mergers and acquisitions of European companies . However, the flow of capital and personnel on both sides of the Atlantic is highly intensive, which China cannot shake at present. At the same time, European society has been under the post-modern and post-materialist ideology for a long time. Their development rhythm is completely different from China's, so it is actually difficult for both sides to understand and communicate effectively, and it is easy for Europeans to bring their own A sense of moral superiority. The combination of these factors will inevitably mean that the upper limit of China-EU relations will not be too high.
But this does not matter, because Europe currently lacks the leverage to exert substantial influence on China in addition to public opinion. At this point, Europe's "talking" is tolerable.
Therefore, for Europe, what China needs is for Europe to stop following the pace of the United States. As long as Europe remains relatively neutral, China can gain enough strategic space. In this regard, on the one hand, China must attract the European business community and use good methods to help European companies optimize the European political environment they face. This means that when they face the attack of American public opinion disguised as European public opinion, China Effective influence is needed to help them escape political pressure. In addition, it is also very important to promote the implementation of more bilateral investment agreements so that China can maintain a high degree of openness to Europe.
In terms of public opinion, we must also actively speak out, understand the logic of public opinion within the European continental countries, and actively influence them. Although public opinion in the United States is very strong, we cannot do nothing to prevent those in Europe who speak for China from speaking up. We must protect those in Europe who are willing to speak out for China. There is no need to directly blame Europe on some issues. We will do whatever needs to be done. We can even directly invite them to visit Xinjiang and other places.Although Europe's sense of moral superiority is annoying, frankly speaking, Europeans' nagging is less fatal than Europe's deeper strategic binding with the United States.
Europe is China's key buffer zone to break external pressure. As long as Europe remains relatively neutral, the Americans will need additional resources to win over Europe, which indirectly reduces China's strategic pressure and may maintain the possibility of seeking new breakthroughs. China needs to be more proactive in communicating with Europe on many matters. It should not be afraid of debate, but should dare to debate and be good at debate. It is best to use Europe's own logic to defeat American logic.
As long as Europe is stabilized, China's external environment will not seriously deteriorate. This is critical.
