How they see us: Failing to unite allies against China
So, are we back to “sunshine, unity, and harmony”? asked Peter Rásonyi in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland). Not quite. After enduring Donald Trump’s bullying and isolationism, European leaders were certainly thrilled to welcome U.S. President Joe Biden at the annual summits for the Group of Seven, held in the U.K., and NATO, held in Brussels. The polished and personable Biden said all the right things, emphasizing America’s enduring support for democracy and, crucially, for NATO’s Article 5, which commits the alliance’s members to come to one another’s defense. But the core issues that divided Europe and America over the past four years haven’t disappeared. European Union nations “continue to hope in vain for the abolition of tariffs” that Trump imposed to protect U.S. industry from foreign imports, and for America to agree to a global carbon-pricing plan to fight climate change. The biggest schism of all is on China, where Biden has essentially adopted Trump’s get-tough policy, minus the off-putting rhetoric.
Tackling Beijing is an issue “obviously close to Biden’s heart,” said Giovanni Maria Del Re in Avvenire (Italy). The president talked about it at both summits, and he lobbied hard to get language denouncing China as a strategic threat into a communiqué issued at the end of the NATO meeting. After much wrangling, the alliance’s 30 members did agree, for the first time, to include multiple paragraphs discussing the challenges posed by China. But the Europeans insisted on adding language about their desire to “maintain a constructive dialogue with China.” German
Chancellor Angela Merkel summed up Europe’s position, stating, “China is a rival in some fields, a partner in others.”
Biden is peddling typically American black-and-white thinking, said Lucie Robequain in Les Echos (France). He wants us to believe that China, like Russia, is an “evil empire” against which Western nations must “unite their political, economic, and why not, one day, military forces.” But make no mistake: While Biden describes the struggle in terms of democracy vs. authoritarianism, he is really focused on preventing China from overtaking the U.S. as the world’s major economic power. The U.S. is “defending its economic interests, nothing else,” and Europe—which depends upon Russia for energy and China for trade—must do the same. Biden’s America “speaks with two tongues” with regard to China, said Michael Sauga in Der Spiegel (Germany). While it condemns human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims and warns of Chinese expansionism, it also allows U.S. tech giants and banks to invest billions of dollars in China. Yet when the EU pursued a similar investment deal last year, “there was great anger in Washington.”
Biden was smooth, said Jorge Tamames in Público (Portugal). Where Trump ticked off Europeans with “insults and obtuse tariffs,” Biden wooed them with flattering talk of shared values. Yet America’s goal remains the same: “to retain the global primacy of the U.S. in a world that is no longer unipolar.” Europe is America’s ally. But keeping America on top is simply not our priority.