How China and the USA are blackmailing Europe

Translating from UNIAN:

"EU between Chinese hammer and American anvil 

Andrey Popov, journalist, 30.07.25

Europe, which lived for three decades in the haze of erroneous ideas of the "End of History" and constantly made strategic mistakes, found itself between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, China is blackmailing Europeans with security issues, almost openly promising to set its pet barbarian Putin on civilization, and on the other - the United States, which threatens to leave Europe unarmed before the same barbarian. It is noteworthy that the Kremlin has become the main scarecrow for all sides. 

"The end of history" is a concept of the philosopher Fukuyama, popular in the 90s, according to which after the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, peace, harmony and unlimited trade will come everywhere. While the Europeans and, somewhat less, the Americans under the leadership of Merkel and Obama rejoiced at this "end of history" and thought about the climate, the protection of democracy in general and the rights of the 54 genders in particular, revanchist conservatives from all over the world stubbornly armed themselves, accumulating their "trump cards".

And now - this summer and this week - the Europeans have been given two ultimatums. The first is from Beijing, which demands trade concessions from the Europeans and an alliance against the US, threatening the EU with its vassals from the Kremlin. Wang Yi recently said directly that the Celestial Empire will not allow Russia to lose the war with Ukraine. But the context of this statement is important - it was voiced during trade negotiations and addressed not to the Ukrainians, but to the Europeans. Which clearly turns this statement into an act of blackmail against the EU.

On the other hand, Trump has stubbornly begun to change the global trade system, "handing out" new duties to everyone (except Russia, of course), and demanding crazy concessions in exchange for reducing these unilateral duties. But in the context of Europe, his main "card" has also become security issues - hints at weakening the defense of NATO and Europe against the backdrop of threats from the Kremlin. "If you don't make concessions to me, I'll give you to Putin," Trump seems to be saying. And the Europeans have made these concessions.

It looks like a game of "good cop, bad cop" orchestrated by Xi and Trump against Europe. But that's hardly the case. Rather, both are behaving like those fairy-tale wolves outside the Three Little Pigs' posh townhouse - each one just blowing in his own direction, trying to take advantage of Europe's strategic vulnerability.    

The European pink "pigs" in an elite 27-room communal apartment are slowly and with difficulty, but they are still coming out of their "fairytale" dreams of the "End of History", starting to gradually pump up their muscles and sharpen their fangs. And now it looks like Brussels has made concessions to Trump, not Xi. But it didn't forget to bargain for itself...

Ursula von der Leyen just brought her "pumpkin" to Beijing, declaring straight to Xi Jinping's face that "first change in relations with the Russian Federation - then trade." And this is already an extremely disadvantageous "stretch" for the Celestial Empire. Because the PRC makes goods from cheap Russian resources, which it then sells on the "premium" European market. The peace-loving European "hogs" have shown that they also have sharp fangs...

The Chinese understand that they are losing. They are losing the initiative. This makes them think about an action that can change all the odds - "reset" the situation in their favor. And they have Putin at hand, who has practically nothing to lose... Beijing's last trump card remains the attack dog Putin, who is always ready to attack on the orders of his master Xi, as well as for internal reasons (when your economy is on its last legs and is alive only thanks to handouts from the "big comrade", then to distract the population, almost the only way out is a powerful external enemy)...

Trump... can no longer do anything that would threaten Europe, because the failure of the EU is also the failure of the US. Trump has no time for Greenland... He is saving what he can. Just in the manner of a racketeer from the 1980s. That is why the rhetoric on Ukraine has changed, by the way - because the failure of Ukraine is a blow to the common interests of the EU-US and the strengthening of China..."