Why did the European Union, which has a "circumference depth" of "thirty and standing", disappoint them?

Source: Global Times

February 7 marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Maastricht Treaty (on November 1, 1993, the Treaty entered into force, marking the official birth of the European Union). "30 years after the signing of the Martendon, has the EU succeeded?" Many international media have raised such questions. Gai Lin, a Chinese scholar who is familiar with the European state system and author of the book "I am in the European Parliament", was recently invited by the Global Times to tell the differences between the EU and the Chinese and Western systems in his eyes through his personal experience and feelings of working in the European Parliament, one of the main institutions of the European Union.

Image source Visual China

Why are European friends dissatisfied with reality?

During the Spring Festival holiday, a Ukrainian friend greeted me. At a time when the situation in Russia and Ukraine was tense, I also asked her for her opinion. I thought she would have championed nato's position because she has long been a staunch supporter of European integration and was the organizer of the massive protests in Ukraine in 2013 when the government announced a moratorium on signing an associate-member agreement with the European Union. Unexpectedly, she said, "Ukraine is getting caught up in a Russian-U.S. game, a mistake by the Ukrainian government and politicians." What surprised me even more was that she began to cast doubt on the Western democracies she had always admired, and believed that it was precisely because about 74 percent of Ukrainian voters in the last election "voted blindly" that they elected incompetent politicians and "mistaken" governments.

This politically savvy Ukrainian woman is not the first European to express her dissatisfaction with Western democracy to me. As early as 2016, when the United Kingdom held a "Brexit" referendum, many British friends told me that they were disappointed in such a referendum format, and even openly criticized the incompetence and selfishness of some British politicians.

Having worked in the European Parliament since 2005, I have been in contact with a number of European political parties. Because of my work needs, I have participated in some of the daily caucuses in parliament, such as the People's Caucus, the European Conservative and Reform Caucus, etc. I have also participated in several annual meetings of the British Conservative Party, regional meetings, constituencies and solicited votes for the British Conservative Party in two European general elections. After working and living in Europe for many years, one of my feelings is that Western political parties only represent the interests of certain interest groups and certain classes. For example, the British Conservative Party, which in the early days represented the landed aristocracy and the upper class, despite hundreds of years of development, still represents the interests of the upper class and capitalists. The British Labour Party, which competes against it, has more than 90% of its members from trade unions, so they only represent the interests of some people. In Europe, the question of which part of the people to serve first and how to serve will give rise to different parties. For example, most politicians believe that European integration is beneficial to the European people, but how integration has led some right-wing European parties to break away from the people's groups in the European Parliament and establish European conservative and reform groups. For another example, some British politicians believe that "Brexit" is for the happiness of the British people, but whether they can "leave the EU" and how to "leave the EU" have caused internal differences in the Conservative Party, the two prime ministers have been forced to resign, the United Kingdom has held a general election in advance, and even triggered some party members to break away from the Conservative Party.

In such a political atmosphere, the discipline of Western political parties cannot be as strict as that of the Chinese Communist Party. According to a report by the House of Commons, 52% of UK Independence party members, 51% of Scottish National Party members, about 33% of Conservative Party members, Liberal Democrats and 23% of Labour party members have attended only one party meeting between 2012 and 2017. The report shows that only 49% of Conservative party members have signed a petition in support of the party's policies. Less than half of liberal Democrats, about 37 percent of Conservatives and 28 percent of Labour party members handed out party leaflets before the election.

Political parties represent only a subset of strata and interest groups and have a direct impact on the elections. In Europe, the method of election varies greatly from country to country, with some parties, some individuals, and some parties and individuals. Some young Europeans have shared with me several of their voting experiences, and they feel "largely randomly." Some parties are well aware that voters will be chaotic, so they usually put important candidates in places where voters are easy to tick when they are randomly elected.

Why have voters become irrational?

In a recent interview with the Global Times, European lawmaker Claire Daly said, "It is a pity that the EU institutions are now pursuing a neoliberal agenda that benefits big business, big farms, not the interests of the people." Since the 2008 global financial crisis, Europe has been mired in an economic downturn. In some Western European countries, people often go on strike to protest against pension system reform and government austerity. In Brussels, the capital of Belgium, strike marches usually pass by or reach the European Parliament, so I've had some personal experiences as well. Before each march, police cars and barricades block all streets leading to the European Parliament office building, guarded by a large number of police officers, and staff need to show their work permits to enter and exit. Striking people usually wear different colors of clothing, hold flags, slogans, etc., some use loudspeakers, whistles, and usually gather in the square in front of the European Parliament to systematically shout protest slogans. Most of what I've seen has been peaceful protests, with occasional demonstrators setting fires in front of parliament, throwing smoke bombs and throwing objects at the police. On another occasion, European dairy farmers sprayed milk on the European Parliament office building in protest against the low price of milk caused by parliamentary resolutions. These social problems arise because the authorities lack communication and consultation with the people in the decision-making process, resulting in an imbalance between decision-making concentration and democracy.

In the last two years, the inefficiency of Western democracies in the fight against the epidemic has been exposed. Popular demonstrations in Italy, Germany, Belgium, France and other countries against the lockdown eventually turned into smash-and-smash incidents. So-called "democracy" demonstrations in the West have caused panic among other people and led to a worse spread of the epidemic.

"In Belgium, an employed person feeds at least two unemployed people." A Belgian friend has said this to me in such earnestness. Some European friends also have many views on the government's approach to the unemployed. In Belgium, for example, the amount of unemployment benefits is no less than a few hundred euros below the country's minimum wage. But unemployment benefits are not paid, buses are free, and the government even offers free housing. In this calculation, unemployment benefits earn more than low-wage earners, so some "smart people" choose not to work. This increases the burden of social security, and the government often chooses to increase the tax revenue of the working population to maintain it, so european countries with high welfare are often high tax countries.

Tax increases on employed persons affect work motivation, so overtime is difficult to see in many european countries. Some self-employed people even choose to "reduce working hours" in order to pay less tax. This will dampen the economy and reduce the total amount of production. Many politicians understand this, but in such a system, no political party can make a radical change, because in Western democracies, which party does not meet the voters' demands for social welfare, the voters will not vote for them. Therefore, under Western democratic systems, the development of productive forces cannot keep up with the democratization process, and the excessive proliferation of "democracy" makes the existing productive forces seem to be unable to meet the normal needs of the people. In the long run, many vicious circles will be formed, which will not only lead to irrational voters and inaction of politicians, but also to turn Europe's high-welfare countries into high-debt countries, laying hidden dangers for greater crises in the future.

Why is there a deviation in the understanding of China?

While serving parliamentarians from different countries and parties, I am often asked about the Chinese Communist Party. For example, a European parliamentarian once asked me about the number of members of the Chinese Communist Party. As far as I know, of the 67 million British population, the total number of party members in the country is only 1.66% of the total population. In China, which has a population of more than 1.4 billion, there are more than 95 million Communist Party members, which surprised European parliamentarians who follow the Chinese Communist Party.

Some European parliamentarians and colleagues have told me that they do not subscribe to Marxism because its experiments in many European countries have failed. A colleague said: "I think Marxism is too idealistic. But no matter what questions these European parliamentarians and colleagues raise, they recognize that the Chinese Communist Party, which adheres to the basic principles of Marxism, has transformed a once semi-colonial and semi-feudal country into an independent new China, and now China has become the world's second largest economy.

It can be seen that Europeans have gradually come to understand the practice of "promoting the sinification of Marxism" in Chinese. At a debate in 2008, a European lawmaker said that "China is the poorest country in the world." In recent years, I have never heard anyone talk about China in this way. But there are also parliamentarians who seem to have gone to the other extreme: "China is no longer a developing country, but a developed country, and it should fulfill greater responsibilities in the world."

Unfortunately, the European Parliament lacks an objective understanding of China. In the past year, the European Parliament has successively issued resolutions on unfriendly to China, and has also passed a resolution to "enhance the EU's political relations with Taiwan". Although it is not binding, it has a great impact. Some parliamentarians have criticized this. "Europe should not be led by the nose against China!" Some of the statements made by Mick Wallace, a member of the European Parliament, last year attracted attention. In an exclusive interview with the Global Times reporter, Lawmaker Claire Daly also said that "hostility to China in Parliament is carefully planned."

Wallace and Daly both come from the European Parliament's far-left group (far-left coalition), whose politicians mostly subscribe to the Chinese Communist Party's philosophy of governance. Wallace and Daly's views show that their thinking is advanced, and their ideas on China are wise and responsible for the EU's own development. The EU seizes the opportunity of cooperation with China to not only solve many of the problems it is currently facing, but also stimulate economic development and increase employment. China not only has a strong purchasing power market, but also plays an important role in ASEAN, Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America and other places. The EU's strengthening of cooperation with China can achieve the purpose of enhancing its international status.

Unfortunately, some anti-China lawmakers have not seen this opportunity, perhaps believing that deepening cooperation with the United States will give the EU a chance to play an important role in the international arena. As everyone knows, how can an EU that follows other countries and is politically heavily influenced by other countries be independent and autonomous on the international stage, and how can it play an important role?

There are currently very few members of the European Parliament who know about China. Most MPs choose to keep a low profile out of political correctness or self-preservation. In the current political environment, lawmakers advocating cooperation with China are suppressed, marginalized, and even persecuted. The EU-China Friendship Group, which has been in the European Parliament for 15 years, has been helping lawmakers understand China objectively, but has been forced to suspend its operations because it has been suppressed by anti-China forces.

Geographically, China is not a close neighbor of the European Union, and in today's complex political environment, China issues are not put in the top position by lawmakers and are not concerned by voters, so there are fewer and fewer parliamentarians in parliament who objectively understand China. At present, most of the Issues on China in the European Parliament come from anti-China lawmakers. Out of political correctness, most parliamentarians make decisions to follow suit when making resolutions, on the one hand, out of ignorance of the facts, and on the other hand, for self-protection. But the European parliamentarians I have come into contact with, all of whom have come to China, have praised China's development and the happiness of its people. Most of them are surprised by the "Speed of China", some will learn from the experience, and some feel that the development of Europe has lagged behind a long way. After the vast majority of parliamentarians have been to China, they will fall in love with China and will find opportunities to come again. (The author is a distinguished researcher of the Frontier Research Institute of Zhejiang Normal University)