At the People’s Palace, a mecca of Chinese culture, President Xi Jinping received his American counterpart, Donald Trump, with the splendor worthy of an age-old culture. In addition to the trappings of an expanding power, China reveals to the world the splendors of its centuries-old civilization. A guarantee of stability in an era where everything seems to change very quickly, China showcases its imperial history, its arts and its way of life, as if all of this remained impervious to the passage of time. Immutable greatness, heightened patriotism, but also defended interests: this is how the Chinese president addresses the American head of state.
On economic opening to US businesses, as on the thorny issue of Taiwan, China is flexing its muscles. If it wants to be welcoming on an economic level, it knows how to be respected on a military level. The Americans are warned: the fate of Taiwan will depend on the will of Beijing. The island constitutes an area of sovereignty for China, which intends to one day retake its territory.
Given President Trump’s logic of power (which is particularly illustrated in Venezuela, Panama, Cuba and perhaps tomorrow in Greenland), the Chinese intend to do the same. Never since the fall of the Berlin Wall has the desire for territorial protection been so strong. Whether it is Russia with Ukraine, China with Taiwan or the United States with the comeback of the Monroe Doctrine, the logic of power is everywhere.
While the Chinese and American giants stare at each other in Beijing, between cannon salvos and military parades, historical pride and waving flags, Brussels seems amorphous, lymphatic and out of the game. Europe, which once dominated the world, is turning into a cold and disembodied technostructure which obstructs national sovereignties and muzzles any attempt to rebuild power.
The European Union, a gigantic impotent glass palace, has broken power initiatives
On several occasions, the European Union, a gigantic impotent glass palace, has broken down power initiatives. Brussels, for example, pushed France to reduce nuclear power, even though its industrial and economic power depended on it. At the same time, in 2019, the European Commission blocked the merger between Alstom and Siemens, who wanted to merge their railway activities to create a European giant capable of competing with the Chinese CRRC, a behemoth supported by Beijing. And on the military level, the situation is just as ubiquitous. While Emmanuel Macron denounced NATO as being “brain dead” in 2019, Ursula von der Leyen came to the aid of the Alliance, specifying: “The history of Europe cannot be told without that of NATO”. Heir to a tradition of vassalization of Europe by the United States, the President of the Commission, like her predecessors, persists in deconstructing the continent’s military autonomy (which mainly boils down to the French army, the only one in Europe capable of ensuring the entire military spectrum).
With the European Union, the continent’s weakness is almost theorized. Member States live under the leadership of a Commission which considers the logic of power to be outdated, preferring the language of globalization to that of identity. This error is major. All the great nations of the world are working to strengthen their culture, the primary tool of cohesion essential to the logic of power. From Japan to the United States, including India and China, all the major countries in the world speak this language. Seen from Europe, this would almost seem like far-right speeches.
The EU condemns, in the name of “values” (we still do not know which ones), any form of national civilizational or cultural construction, even though this is the first stone of the return to power. In a world of imperialism, conquest and trade war, wanting to erase European national cultures is guaranteed suicide. If Europe wants to stand as a power in the world, it must paradoxically breathe new life and freedom into the States that make it up and assume a logic of alliances in the service of continental power.
There is no shortage of projects: defense, industry, digital… In all these areas, complementarities between European states exist. It would only be enough for Brussels to be the facilitator and not the obstacle. On a civilizational level, French, Italian, German and other cultures have nothing to envy of India, China or the United States. We must only allow European countries to reconnect with their cultures, without referring any attempt to return to patriotism to a nationalist or populist push.
The only way for Europe to survive in today’s world is that of the logic of power. It supposes a global rearmament of the continent. Without abandoning the humanist values established from the Renaissance and translated in the Declaration of Human Rights, but without forgetting to be respected either. Without this intellectual revolution, Europe will, within a few decades, be nothing more than a playground for warlike and illiberal powers.
