Europe Has a Better Lever Against China Than Sanctions
As tensions escalate and the U.S. seeks allies in its rivalry with China, the EU should reconsider its investment deal with Beijing.
Pandas can be dangerous.
Photographer: Michele Tantussi/Getty Images
There’s something increasingly ritualistic about the geopolitical standoff between the West and China. The Americans and Europeans wag their fingers at the Chinese for violating human rights in Xinjiang, democracy in Hong Kong, peace in the Taiwan Strait and so forth. The Chinese tell the Westerners to mind their own business and stop being hypocritical.
On it goes, tit for tat. Whenever Chinese diplomats feel slighted, they behave like the “wolf warriors” they think their president, Xi Jinping, wants them to be. That term comes from two action movies about Chinese hunks kicking sinister Western butts. Beijing’s message is: You can’t mess with us anymore.