Quote (Malopox @ 17 Jul 2024 19:36)
The article is not arguing that Europe needs to cut ties with US right away, but argues that over time grievances are accumulating whereby falling 100% in line with US foreign policy starts to hurt domestic European companies. See for example todays ASML share loss that wiped out 40Bn+ in market cap because quote:
US-based tech companies like AMD and Nvidia suffered comparable losses today. Just sayin'...
Like I've said, at the end of the day, the more important question is if US foreign policy is right or wrong in a particular instance. I agree that Europe should be willing to do its own thing if the answer it arrives at is 'no' (and tell the Yanks to fuck off if they don't like it), but I also believe that the correct answer is 'yes' far more often than not. When it comes to the tech war, I believe that a bifurcation of the world is inevitable. In the very long run, our position in Taiwan is untenable, so we must move heaven and earth to develop our own semiconductor industries and try to buy time until then. And this buying of time entails technological sanctions against China and the military defense of Taiwan as long as we still critically depend on it.
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In case of eg Russia this was a painful (I hope temporary) divorce which is in the process of unfolding as we speak. Divorcing with China will come with unprecedented loss of quality of life. Some Germans might need to start working 5 days a week again!
The crux is finding the right balance. Completely divorcing from China would be devastating. But a continuation of the naive, unbridled free trade with China in which they increasingly steal our industries, technologies and market share while creating dangerous dependencies of our economy on the Chinese market... a continuation of that course would be just as devastating. Europe needs to find a way to continue mutually beneficial trade with China while cutting back on one-sided, unfair trade practices which undermine our own wealth and sovereignty. Which is of course much easier said than done.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jul 17 2024 01:20pm