Former German Foreign Minister Fischer: The West should seize the "last chance" to keep up with China

Germany's Frankfurt Review newspaper published an article on March 6 saying that former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer recently published a new book as a gift for his 70th birthday on April 12. The title of the new book is "The Decline of the West" and the subtitle is "Europe in the New World Order of the 21st Century." In Fischer's view, there is no reason to think that China's rise will be prevented, and no country's economic growth has been as fast and strong as China's. Europe must make efforts if it does not want to be left behind altogether, and above all it must step up.

Fischer began speaking long ago: "We see the decline of the West as a disruption of the world order. This impression simply stems from our negative memories. Until the 18th century, China was the world's largest country. All we are experiencing at the moment is a return to the traditional order. He said this at a press conference at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin.

Fischer's book is certainly one of the most important new books of this spring. It's a passionate, well-written, even emotional book. It begins with a recollection of a famous scene in austrian writer Stephen Zweig's The World of Yesterday, when the author witnesses the last Habsburg emperor leaving Austria by train. An era is over. The next date is June 24, 2016, when Brexit supporters win.

Donald Trump won the presidential election in the same year. Fischer said Trump set out to make America great again. But in reality he is making China great. Europe's approach is no different. It is not united, but fragmented.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for 2.8 percent of the global economy in 1970, up from 15.5 percent in 2015. Today, Europe and its economies are hardly growing, and individual European countries have not even the slightest hope of keeping up with global players the United States and China. They have a chance only if they act together.

In Fischer's view, there is no reason to think that China's rise will be blocked, and no country's economic growth has been as fast and strong as China's. Europe must make efforts if it does not want to be left behind altogether, and above all it must step up. Fischer believes: "This is the last chance for Europe. "Otherwise, Europe will say goodbye to world history – perhaps not sitting in a train, but disappearing into a back room that is quickly forgotten."