Dfor years, the American intellectual and political world repeats that the West cannot afford to ” lose “ Russia letting it get closer to China. However, the links between Europe and the Kremlin have continued to deteriorate even before Russia launched its war against Ukraine and “Choose to pursue an imperialist foreign policy, with the aim of overthrowing key elements of the international order”as the formula A report by the White House of October 2022.
Today, some say that the United States and Europe should seek to appease Russia, force Ukraine to propose a peace agreement to Vladimir Putin and even invite Moscow to join the G7-probably to focus on the battle against China, a country which constitutes, according to American leaders, “The only competitor who has, on the one hand, the intention to do the world order to do again, and, on the other hand, more and more the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do so”. At the end of February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States ” born [pouvaient] not let Russia become the partner of China ”as if it were a possible scenario, not what was happening.
China is not the best friend in the West, but instead of trying to appease Moscow to counter Beijing, it is possible to think about a different strategy, based on several obvious points.
First, China is much more powerful than Russia. It has a population ten times greater and a gross domestic product nine times higher. The world's leading exporter of manufactured products, it seems to be the only power in the world capable of competing with the West in the field of advanced technological solutions. Then, China may be a communist and regularly trample on Western human rights principles, it has not triggered a war of aggression since 1979.
You have 69.79% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
Source: Lemonde