Spring 2025 Issue: The China Factor

The United States is turning into an unreliable ally for Europe. Increasing dependence on China in response, however, would not be a good idea.

Only 4 percent of Europeans, on average, consider China to be an “ally,” while over a third regard it as a “rival” or an “adversary.” Still, the temptation to see it as a “strategic hedge” is there.

The European Union needs to reduce its dependence on the United States. This should not come at the cost of a greater reliance on China.

Beijing has been outpacing Brussels in the so-called Global South. Now the EU must rethink its global game plan.

It’s difficult enough for Europe to find the right response to the ever-closer Russia-China relationship. The apparent US attempt to split Moscow from Beijing is making matters worse.

China’s top diplomat has proposed aligning the Belt and Road Initiative with Global Gateway, the EU’s infrastructure investment strategy. If it does choose this path, Brussels must remain clear-eyed about the BRI’s firmly China-centric nature.

In the aftermath of the launch of DeepSeek, China’s political goal of a vast AI expansion is gaining traction. Europe should be ready.

Worries about Chinese one-sided industrial and export policies are increasing not only in Europe, but also among nations of the Global South.

The incoming government of Friedrich Merz needed the Greens to get an unprecedented financial package through parliament. The Greens delivered, in their own way.

Germany’s incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz shares many of French President Emmanuel Macron’s talents, but also many of his faults.

US President Donald Trump demands energy dominance yet threatens to derail years of joint US-EU progress on clean energy manufacturing.

The global economic turmoil and the Trump administration’s isolationism means that the euro could step into the limelight.

Relations with the United States “in a new phase,” Poland is experiencing something of a Zeitenwende, or historic turn, when it comes to the country’s fundamental foreign policy orientation. The US president is far from universally disliked, though.

Europe has never had so few alternatives as it does today. But that is exactly why Europe will succeed.

Despite the US president’s tariffs threats, other states and the EU should stick to the rules-based trading system and find ways to strengthen it.