Why the EU is lining up against China

The European Parliament on May 20, 2021 froze the ratification of the EU-China Investment Agreement, concluded in December by the European Commission after seven years of negotiations. The resolution was approved by an overwhelming majority with 599 votes for, 30 against and 58 abstentions [1]. 1] Formally, it is motivated as a retaliation to Chinese sanctions against members of the European Parliament, decided by Beijing after its officials were subjected to sanctions on the accusation, rejected by China, of human rights violations, especially of Uighurs. EU lawmakers argue that while the Chinese sanctions are illegal because they violate international law, the EU sanctions are legal because they are based on the UN’s defense of human rights.

What is the real motive behind the cloak of "defending human rights in China"? The strategy, launched and led by Washington, to recruit European countries into the coalition against Russia and China. The fundamental lever of this operation is the fact that 21 of the 27 countries of the European Union are members of NATO under US command. In the forefront against China, as well as against Russia, are the Eastern European countries, which are also members of NATO and the EU, and which, being more closely linked to Washington than to Brussels, increase the US influence on the EU’s foreign policy. This policy substantially follows that of the United States, especially through NATO. But not all allies are on the same level: Germany and France agree with the United States on the basis of mutual convenience, while Italy obeys and keeps quiet to the detriment of its own interests. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was able to declare after his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on May 21: "We will support the rules-based international order against the authoritarian push of countries like Russia and China.

China, which Nato has previously put on the back burner as a "threat" by focusing its energy on the strategy against Russia, is now being placed on the same level. This is happening in the wake of what is being done in Washington. Where the strategy against China is about to become law. In the United States Senate, the Strategic Competition with China Act, S. 1169, was introduced on April 15 on the bi-partisan initiative of Democrat Bob Menendez and Republican James Risch. The motivation for the legislation leaves no doubt that it is an all-out confrontation: "The People’s Republic of China is leveraging its political, diplomatic, economic, military, technological, and ideological power to become a strategic global competitor, almost on par, with the United States. The policies increasingly pursued by the PRC in these areas are contrary to the interests and values of the United States, its partners and much of the rest of the world." On this basis, the law stipulates political, economic, technological, media, military and other measures against China, aimed at striking and isolating it. A true declaration of war, not in the figurative sense.

Admiral Philip S. Davidson, who heads the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, has asked Congress for $27 billion to build a curtain of missile bases and satellite systems around China, including a constellation of space-based radar platforms. Meanwhile, US military pressure on China is increasing: missile units of the Seventh Fleet are cruising in the South China Sea, US Air Force strategic bombers have been deployed to the island of Guam in the western Pacific, while US Navy Triton drones have been moved closer to China from Guam to Japan. In the wake of the United States, NATO is also extending its strategy to East Asia and the Pacific [2], where - as Stoltenberg said - "we need to strengthen our military capabilities with close partners such as Australia and Japan".

So the European Parliament has not simply taken another step in the "sanctions war" against China. It has taken another step to bring Europe to war.