THE DOUBLE MISTAKE OF EUROPE – Relying on the neoliberal creed, believing it would guarantee supremacy and lasting prosperity, and giving up the role of being a bridge between the United States and the emerging world.

In their recent trip to Beijing, both German Chancellor Scholz and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reproached Xi Jinping for China’s alleged overinvestment in sectors such as electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries, well beyond the capacity of its domestic market, in order to flood global markets with more competitive goods. They both stated that they will not accept their industries being cornered simply because Chinese products enjoy lower production costs.

According to the Chinese, these claims are unfounded. They argue that China’s rise in these sectors has been driven, among other factors, by innovation and supply chains that have made the Chinese production system more competitive. The trade war between Western countries and China seems to be escalating every day, laying the groundwork for a military confrontation in line with the well-known saying by Von Clausewitz that war is the continuation of politics by other means.