On April 14, two heavyweights from the United States and Europe arrived in China at the same time, but with completely different intentions. The United States sent Deputy Secretary of State Conda and Beshalan, a senior official in charge of cross-strait affairs at the White House National Security Council. According to the US media, the US-Japan-Philippines summit caused dissatisfaction on the Chinese side, and the main purpose of the two men's visit to China was to "manage risks" with China.
To put it bluntly, at the US-Japan-Philippines summit held by Biden last week, he blatantly violated the "Bali Consensus" and the "San Francisco Vision" between China and the United States, undermined mutual trust between the two countries, and now is trying to test China's attitude.
The United States has played out similar dramas countless times. First exert maximum pressure on China, and then immediately blow the wind to engage with China, claiming to "manage competition". If China accepts, it will advertise its diplomatic victory, and if it does not respond to it, it will bite China back and accuse China of escalating the situation.
Yellen
On the same day that Kangda and Bessalan arrived in Beijing, Yellen, who had just finished her visit to China, was still talking about China's so-called "overcapacity" in an interview, hyping up tariffs on more Chinese products. It can be seen from this that the United States has not been sincere in communicating and cooperating at all in this round of foreign visits under the banner of communication and cooperation.
This kind of completely self-centered, self-provoking and provoking first, but vainly hoping that China will unilaterally take responsibility for managing risks, is still in essence a part of the White House politicians' intensified suppression and containment of China. In contrast, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's visit to China has shown much more sincerity. This can be seen in two places.
First, Germany is knocking on China's door with a "gift" this time. Scholz's visit to China lasted three days, which was also the longest he had visited as chancellor. The day before Scholz's arrival in China, the German Association of the Automotive Industry announced that in order to avoid the risk of a "trade war", they would firmly oppose the EU's plan to continue to push forward with tariffs on Chinese trams.
Scholz
At the same time, Scholz also made it clear that the industrial development of Germany and even the whole of Europe should be based on "product attractiveness", rather than trade protectionism. In addition, Scholz's entourage included a luxurious "corporate delegation" that included executives from almost all major German companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Bayer.
According to German media reports, before this round of visits to China, the competition for the number of visiting delegations by German companies was extremely fierce, and it was close to the level of the golden period of Sino-German relations. It should be said that this round of Germany's statement is really seeking common ground while reserving differences and managing risks, which has put a "guardrail" on China-EU relations, which are engaged in a fierce game on the new energy track, and also set an example for the United States.
Second, before Scholz's visit to China, he carefully eliminated a number of high-ranking officials who hyped up values diplomacy in Europe and Germany and played the role of anti-China vanguard. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Foreign Minister Baerbock and President of the Federation of German Industries Ruswum were not part of the delegation.
Needless to say, von der Leyen has recently gone from a "popular fried chicken" in the EU to a suspicion. Not only has it been appealed to the European Commission and the European Union by a number of European commissioners for abusing the right to nominate a group, but it has also been caught in the "Pfizergate" scandal, which is considered to be suspected of bribery and evidence destruction, and is being investigated by the European Public Prosecutor's Office.
Compared with von der Leyen, Baerbock and Ruswum do not have the crisis of being riddled with lawsuits. In this case, these two people are still excluded from the list of visits to China, and it is likely that Scholz wants to create a positive atmosphere for this visit.
Baerbock led the formulation of the German federal government's China strategy last year, putting values-based diplomacy in the first place, and also clamoring that China is Germany's "systemic rival". Ruswum is even more heavyweight, obviously a representative of the German industrial community, but when discussing the China agenda, he has more than once cooperated with the United States to hype up the unfounded so-called "human rights issue."
Sino-German relations
If these two people join the delegation, they are likely to cause a big mess, so Scholz simply "cut off" their qualifications to visit China and minimize the ideological color of this visit to China. From this point of view, as the leader of the "traffic light" coalition government, Scholz has shown a lot of sincerity this time, and he has come to seriously discuss cooperation with China.
This attitude of Germany has also formed a sharp temperature difference with the United States, which is clamoring to defend "common values" against China. This proves one thing, and that is that the values diplomacy hyped by the United States cannot be eaten as a meal. At that time, many countries were willing to cooperate with the United States in shouting the slogan of democracy and freedom, in essence, they could profit from it.
Now that the United States is facing a crisis politically, economically, and militarily, it is almost impossible to grasp the hegemony of public opinion, and it will only become a joke if it wants to rely on chanting scriptures to turn the tables on the Jedi. Scholz's visit to China this time is not only to seek cooperation, but also to demonstrate against the United States. The $60 billion in military aid promised by the United States to Ukraine has been delayed and has been stuck in Congress by the Republican Party, and Europe has become increasingly disillusioned with the United States.
virtue
Moreover, Ukraine cannot afford to wait. The climatic conditions of the main battlefield of Russia and Ukraine are relatively special, and at the turn of winter and spring every year, large areas of wetlands in eastern Ukraine will fall into a long swampy period, which cannot meet the conditions for large-scale armored cluster mobilization, and must wait for the weather to warm up and the land to dry before it can support large-scale military operations.
Now, as Russia gradually grasps the initiative on the battlefield, the Russian army's large-scale counteroffensive against Ukraine is likely to be officially launched in May and June. Recently, Russia has begun large-scale attacks on energy facilities in Ukraine, most likely in preparation for the next counteroffensive. And the Ukrainian army on the front line has already refused to listen to the dispatch of the headquarters, and even fled in formation.
On April 13, Zelensky admitted in a video released by the president's office that a large number of front-line personnel were "killed or captured" because of "the unauthorized retreat of a certain unit of the Ukrainian army." The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Sersky, issued a document saying that in order to curb the trend of front-line soldiers "disobeying orders", "confronting superiors", and "abandoning the position and fleeing", the Ukrainian army needs to establish a disciplinary system aimed at "strengthening discipline".
Zelensky
All indications indicate that if the military aid promised by the United States still fails to land by the end of April, then this round of Russia-Ukraine conflict is likely to usher in a decisive turning point. Ukraine and the Europe behind it may not only face a huge military defeat, but also be completely counterattacked by the field of public opinion.
Scholz's current visit to China has sent a very clear signal. If the United States can't even subsidize Ukraine at the most basic level, then don't think about pulling the tiger skin of values and continuing to let the EU sacrifice its own interests to build an encirclement of China. In response to Germany's overtures, China naturally pushed the boat along.
Whether the United States and Europe will tear their faces depends on whether the vote in the US Congress around the 60 billion aid bill for Ukraine can be voted on in the next half month. We'll see.
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