President #XiJinping visits Europe : #European leaders ignore public opinion & domestic concerns to stoke #ColdWar

World News 🌐⚡️
@ferozwala
#European leaders ignore public opinion & domestic concerns to stoke #ColdWar

Trade & economic concerns are near the top of #China’s agenda this week as President #XiJinping visits Europe for the first time in five years. But many leaders are far more focused on the West’s proxy war in Ukraine against Russia noted researcher Dr George Szamuely on #Sputnik’s Fault Lines program.

“There’s no question Europe is very heavily dependent on trade with China,” said Szamuely. “But at the same time, Europe is wedded to this policy in Ukraine of seeking the military and strategic defeat of Russia. These policies are somewhat in tension.”

Officials throughout the continent have aligned themselves with the Biden administration’s stance on China and Ukraine even when such posturing places them at odds with the will of the public. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has attempted to maintain good relations with Beijing given the country’s importance as a foreign market for German automakers. But Szamuely said Scholz’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock “is rabid on the subject of China, almost as bad as she is on the subject of Russia.”

“If she were to take control of policy then Europe would indeed go down the path of sanctioning China and hurting itself,” he said. “Already we’ve seen… how much Europe has hurt itself through its sanctions policy against Russia. But as Annalena Baerbock has famously said… Ukraine is far more important to me than the wishes of the German people.”

Baerbock caused a stir in 2022 when the German minister of foreign affairs explicitly stated she is willing to oppose domestic opinion in order to continue the country’s anti-Russia stance.