Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made some remarks on the sidelines of the 53rd Munich Security Conference. He claimed that China has been consistently supporting the European integration and China is willing to work with the European side for the world’s peace and development.
US Vice President Mike Pence and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both praised NATO but Pence made no mention of the European Union. In response to Trump’s early claim to call for Germany to increase its national military spending, Angela Merkel said on the conference that “Germany will live up to its promise to increase military spending but on its own schedule” While Merkel praised the broader international organizations that have been a key part of the post-Cold War global order, Pence remained silent on the EU. This may look like that the new White House will embrace only some aspects of European unity, while rejecting others.
To understand China’s continuing official declaration of support for the EU and the unity of Europe, we also have to bear in mind that sometimes China uses each one of the 28 members of the EU as 28 potential choices of entry. It is something we have brought up before in previous comments. What the EU sees as a strength, that is its own unity, China sees it as EU weakness, because China’ strategy is one of Divide et impera. The European Union must be very careful when dealing with China because it leaves China 28 open doors, from which China can enter Europe and take commercial advantage.
[…] Without wanting to put my words in the author of the article’s mouth, the vision of Cuscito fits well with what I have been supporting for some time: that is that China always tries to use each of the 28 countries of the Union to its advantage, in order to penetrate the market in the remaining 27 countries. What is perceived as a strong point in Brussels – ie the fact that so many countries have formed a single market – is instead exploited by China, and rightly so to its advantage, and thus becomes a point of weakness of the Union itself. […]