China and America are busy building their power blocs looking for allies.
China and the US are in a race to build their respective world power blocs, and both are using the same pressure point: the war in Ukraine. Last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping spent three days in Russia, cementing his partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden kicks off his second Summit for Democracy — with the goal of bringing together world leaders around the principles of freedom, the rule of law and human rights.
The not-so-subtle subtext: the world should unite against China and Russia. In Biden’s alliance of democracies, Europe was at best ambivalent about China. Some of the most important countries, such as France and Germany, are concerned that breaking away from China would cause too many economic losses.
Since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, Europeans are beginning to pay more attention to Biden’s message about the dangers of dependence on dictatorships. Urgent as never before, they are restricting exports of chip-making equipment to China, banning TikTok from state-owned devices, and pushing protectionist trade policies. Even long-stalwart Germany, the European Union’s largest economy and a major investor in China, is beginning to question its business ethos.
China and Russia
China is fighting back. It is strengthening ties with Russia, offering a peace plan for Ukraine and pushing the message that governments can be “democracies” even if they deny their citizens the right to freely vote for their leaders. “We are in a tense moment – between the war in Ukraine, alignment of China with Russia and continuous economic upheavals – and the role of the main leader is filled”, said Stephen Feldstein, who was the deputy assistant secretary of state of the US President Barack Obama. for democracy, human rights and labor, and regularly advises current administration officials on these issues. Europe is listening.
When Joe Biden became president in 2020, The Europeans did not want to hear his big stories about the joint opposition to authoritarianism. Biden’s attempt to block a landmark trade deal between the EU and China in the weeks before his inauguration was met with scorn from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. Since then, European leaders have been divided on the issue, with many frustrated by the US government’s talk of alliances while becoming economically protectionist.
United Europe
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Lajen said: “China is cultivating dependencies on every continent,” von der Leyen said late last year, adding: “in contrast, look at what the US and Europe can achieve if we join forces.” She also chaired a session at the first Biden 2021 Democracy Summit. .
It is a starkly different tone from Merkel, who has strongly rejected calls for Europe to take sides between the US and China until she leaves office in December 2021. “I would very much like to avoid building blocs,” Merkel told the Davos World Economic Forum. in January 2021
The war in Ukraine, and thus Beijing’s cozy relationship with Moscow, makes traditional German orthodoxy feel less and less sustainable. After the US circulated intelligence among allies that China was considering sending weapons to Russia to fight in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned there would be “consequences” if China did so, while the EU’s foreign policy and security chief, Josep Borrell, briskly called it a “red line” if China goes ahead with such a plan.
Germany’s two dominant center-right political parties now plan to reverse Merkel’s pragmatic stance on China, arguing that peacekeeping through trade has failed, according to a draft position paper published by Politico on Sunday.
“At a time when democracies around the world are under threat, transatlantic relations are stronger than they have been for many years,” said Michael Roth, chairman of the German legislature’s foreign affairs committee. Many in Europe are still reluctant to cut ties with China — especially in the sphere “The West against the rest” would not work, the EU’s top trade official Sabine Weyand said last month.
The club of liberal democracies is small
And European officials are still trying to separate China from Putin. Over the next two weeks, Macron, von der Leyen and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez are visiting China on separate trips to prevent a full partnership between Beijing and Moscow. The US is increasing the pressure. For this week’s summit, the Biden administration has invited eight new countries that it says have the “political will” to advance democracy.
Parts of Africa are also having a hard time deciding who to side with, especially since so many countries have benefited from China’s massive infrastructure investments. While 27 African countries voted in favor of the March 2022 UN resolution against Russian aggression, 16 others – including South Africa – abstained, while Eritrea voted against.
In Latin America, Costa Rica is the only country that has joined the US sanctions against Russia. And the regional trade group Mercosur rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s request to speak with the body in July. China has its own multifaceted approach to courting the world.
As for Ukraine, Beijing is trying to show its friendlier side — but also to Russia and the West. Xi’s visit to Putin led to multiple “strategic cooperation” agreements that included increased sales of Russian gas to Beijing, as well as agreements to expand cross-border transportation links by building new bridges and roads.
At the same time, China has embarked on a global public relations push to portray itself as a country advocating for peace in Ukraine. Beijing is putting forward a potential 12-point peace plan. Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang assured Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a telephone conversation earlier this month that Beijing wants a “constructive role” in ending the conflict.
China also hosted its own International Forum on Democracy last week, with 300 participants from 100 countries. The group discussed “various forms of democracy, denouncing monist and hegemonic narratives on the subject,” Chinese state media reported.
(WORLD)