Abstract: In recent years, the US government has been clamoring for the so-called decoupling from China, especially in an attempt to set off a wave of so-called decoupling from China in the Western world, using anti-globalization measures to contain China's development. There are many supporters and responders to this kind of clamor in the Western world, but the recent remarks by German Chancellor Scholz gave these clamorers a resounding slap in the face.
Recently, when German Prime Minister Scholz attended the Berlin Mechanical Engineering Summit, he clearly expressed his support for globalization in his speech, saying that globalization has made a lot of prosperity possible. He firmly opposed decoupling, emphasizing that decoupling would be a completely wrong path. . He believes that Germany and the EU must establish a broader and more robust trade relationship, not only can not decouple from individual countries, but must trade with many countries, including China.
In this summit, EU Trade Commissioner Dombrovsky also clearly pointed out in his speech that what the world needs today is not isolationism and protectionism, but the EU and China are deeply integrated economies . The public remarks made by Scholz and Dombrowski are undoubtedly a clear and clear signal in the current cloudy world environment. This signal is that decoupling and de-globalization are not in the interests of Germany and the EU. In the future, Germany and the EU will insist on globalization and close economic and trade cooperation with countries around the world, including China.
As we all know, in the past few years, especially since the era of Trump, the word decoupling has started to appear more and more frequently in the western media and in the mouths of western politicians, and it seems to have become the economic and trade policy towards China a weather vane. Many people had expected that after Biden's Democratic administration came to power, it would correct the radical trade protectionist policies of the Trump era, and would be able to correct China-US economic and trade cooperation and the development direction of the world economy back to the track of globalization and cooperation. come up. However, what is disappointing is that the Biden administration still insists on mistakenly treating China as its own strategic competitor. Although it seldom speaks the word of decoupling directly, in actual actions, it unites with Western countries, the so-called Indo-Pacific countries, Use multilateral methods to promote the construction of industrial chains that get rid of China, and promote the de-Sinization of more technology industries. The biggest difference between
and Trump is that the tone of voice is not so high, but the actual action is more fierce. The cruelty of lies in Trump's unilateralism and isolationism, putting the United States first everywhere, and not hesitate to offend Western allies in the interests of the immediate future. If he can't unite his Western partners, it is difficult to form a Western country. the combined force. But the Biden administration is different. The Biden administration pursues the traditional strategy of fighting in groups in the United States. Unlike Trump, which only focuses on immediate interests and short-term interests, it looks at long-term strategic interests. In terms of immediate interests, he can follow the EU. , make concessions with Japan and South Korea, and win over Western allies to jointly achieve long-term strategic goals that are beneficial to itself. We have seen that the Biden administration is no longer obsessed with trade disputes with EU countries, and no longer insists on requiring Japan, South Korea and Germany to pay more for their own troops. At the same time, the United States continues to use so-called common values to unite and cohere Western allies, , shape the so-called common enemy to the western world in terms of political and security interests. The wishful thinking of the United States is that under the guidance of this illusory common "enemy", Western countries will follow them obediently and kick out China, the most important participant in the global industrial chain, thus curbing the development of China's economy. Stop China's technological progress. Not to mention
, this trick is indeed very clever, and it has fooled a lot of people in the Western world, especially those who are full of Cold War mentality , those who are full of prejudice and even discrimination against China. In the construction of the de-sinicized industrial chain promoted by the United States, there are indeed some countries that follow closely, and whoever it is, must be known by everyone who often reads the news. The outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict actually aggravated this trend. made the world tear apart even more, made the world in the eyes of Western society more divided, and made many Westerners more radical in their thinking. The specific performance of
is that Western countries have become more and more hysterical on the road of anti-Russia, which makes people feel that it is simply unreasonable. Western countries that have always advocated freedom and the legal system actually go to indiscriminately confiscate the property of other Russians and expel ordinary citizens. , this is simply insane. In this environment, the United States is implementingWhen qualitatively decoupling from China, it is easier to fool more Western supporters.
From this perspective, the current situation is not good for us. Everyone must remember that the German foreign minister said a lot of things that were not conducive to Sino-German economic and trade cooperation not long ago, which seemed to echo the current international environment that is torn apart. There are also reports in the media that the German government will no longer provide guarantees for German companies to invest in China, encourage German companies to move to other countries, and so on. Including other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Italy, not to mention some countries in Eastern Europe that are more closely following the United States, more news is released to pour cold water on the development of economic and trade cooperation with China. This kind of news everyone A lot of searching online gives the impression that it seems that the EU countries are picking up speed in following the US decoupling.
However, it is in such an international environment that is intensifying the tear, and in the cloudy international climate, Scholz and Dombrowski made their opening remarks in a high-profile manner, which illustrates the mainstream politics of the EU. The elites still have a relatively clear understanding of the development of the situation. We know that Germany is the engine of the European economy and the largest trading country in Europe. The German economy is highly dependent on foreign trade, and exports account for 80% of Germany's total trade. Germany's manufacturing industry is world-renowned, and China is the most important overseas client. After World War II, Germany's economy has been highly dependent on international trade, and the unimpeded international trade is an important guarantee for Germany's economic development, so Germany has always been an active supporter of globalization. In Germany's globalization, China's position is the most prominent. China has become Germany's largest trading partner for six consecutive years, and Germany is also China's largest trading partner in Europe. It is precisely because of this that Germany has been under enormous political and diplomatic pressure from the United States. It is hoped that Germany can lead Europe and weaken its economic and trade cooperation with China. Due to pressure from the United States, and of course from domestic conservative and anti-China forces, Germany has not been too active in the decoupling of China promoted by the United States, including the 10 billion euro huge investment project of Germany’s BASF Chemicals in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, which started construction not long ago. , although it was an agreement that had been reached before and was planned, but under the current political depression, the ability to insist on investment despite the opposition of both Chancellor Scholz and Minister of Economy Habeck fully shows that German companies Reluctant to give up China's huge market.
At present, the global inflationary pressure is huge. Due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Germany has lost the supply of cheap energy from Russia. This is absolutely bad news for the strong manufacturing industry on which Germany relies on prosperity, and will undoubtedly weaken the German manufacturing industry. global competitiveness. Germany is weakened, America is weakened, who is happiest? Of course, the United States, which is clamoring for the return of manufacturing all day long, is the happiest. Therefore, the German Chancellor couldn't hold back this time. He must speak these words at the mechanical engineering summit representing German industry, to express the position of the German government, and to let the vast number of German companies who are confused about the future see the direction clearly and strengthen them. Continue to go global and develop confidence in trade with China. Of course, there is room for Scholz's words, and it is impossible to completely screw with the position of the United States. For example, when he firmly opposed decoupling, he also said that "the order at the turning point of the current era is not decoupling, but ingenious political and economic diversification". To a certain extent, Germany will cooperate with the U.S. in its strategic competition with China. In other words, on the premise that it does not conflict with the general strategic direction of the U.S., it will try to gain benefits from its economic and trade cooperation with China as much as possible. You can understand In order to contain China's progress in science and technology, we must also enjoy China's huge market cake.
Hearing this, you may think that I am calling the Germans hypocritical. In fact, we welcome this kind of hypocrisy. Economic and trade cooperation between countries is always a matter of profit. Who doesn't want to make money, regardless of what others think. As long as our Chinese economy can develop steadily step by step, we Chinese are getting richer and stronger, and our spending power is getting stronger and stronger, we will not worry that no one is willing to carry out economic and trade cooperation with us, and anyone's decoupling attempt is destined to only It is a dream of yellow lily.
