DUMPED by the US, Europe heads rapidly for economic WAR with China and military WAR with Russia

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Hello everybody. While Trump is back in his swamp in Washington and Xi Jinping in Beijing waiting and preparing for the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is due to arrive tomorrow, Tuesday, for a two-day visit.

[00:00:19]We can discuss a bit about the fallout or the consequences of the whole Trump-Xi summit for Europe. Because Europe not being, of course, not being present at the meeting, having no influence at all, being a marginal player now at world events. In fact, it's very true that European leaders have been their pants for months now, agonizing over the summit because they were very much afraid that things would be decided over their head, but very much in a very negative way for them.

[00:01:01]Because there were basically three things they were concerned about. First of all, there was the major concern that, you know, somehow the Americans and the Chinese would seal a grand bargain on trade, which would leave Europe out in the cold. Now, there was no grand trade deal yet, so this is a relief for the Europeans.

[00:01:25]Secondly, there was the fear that Trump would agree to send more advanced chips to China while at the same time telling European companies like Dutch company ASML not to sell their advanced lithography machines needed to produce these chips to China. Now, as long as we know, nothing of that has nothing of that kind has been agreed either.

[00:01:50]Despite the very fact that Jensen Huang from Nvidia was doing everything he could uh increase his popularity in China over the last days.

[00:02:00]Um you know, it's not the first time he was in China, of course, but he went around, and talked to the people, and ate some food, and all these kind of things made him into a popular figure, and that he has done before.

[00:02:12]And thirdly, of course, there was also the fear that Trump somehow would throw Taiwan under the bus in exchange for promises from China to help him with Iran.

[00:02:24]And here, the fear for the Europeans would be that if Trump would give in on Taiwan, this, of course, would have very bad effects for allies around the world, including uh Europe, uh because it shows again that the United States don't really care about their allies anymore, that security guarantees don't matter at all, and that then supposedly would embolden uh countries like Russia and China to become more aggressive.

[00:02:52]And here, things seem to be more ambiguous because in a Fox interview aired on Friday, this is what Trump had to say. But they have somebody there now that wants to go independent. Well, that's a very risky thing. When you go independent, you know, they're going independent cuz they want to get into a war, and they want to They figure they have the United States behind them.

[00:03:14]Uh I'd like to see it stay the way it is, and I'll tell you something, I'll make a little news. I'd like to see everybody making chips over in Taiwan come into America cuz to be honest with I think it's the greatest thing you can do. They stole our chip industry.

[00:03:28]China's a very, very powerful, big country. That's a very small island.

[00:03:33]It's uh You think of it, it's 59 mi away. 59 mi.

[00:03:38]Uh we're 9,500 mi away.

[00:03:41]Uh that's a little bit of a difficult problem. It's a very good negotiating chip for us, frankly.

[00:03:49]It's a It's a of weapons. It's $12 billion. It's a lot of weapons.

[00:03:54]So, this seems to indicate that Trump is saying, "Well, you know, actually Taiwan is now a strategic bargaining chip for us. And [snorts] yes, they're very far away, 9,500 km or miles, I'm not sure.

[00:04:09]So, this is very hard for us to help them.

[00:04:11]Now, on the other hand, we have to be careful here. This interview was conducted in Beijing just after his meeting with Xi Jinping. So, Trump might still have been in a kind of a pro-China mood and very much impressed with what Xi Jinping had to show him and told him and whatever there is. And obviously, the moment that Trump goes back to Washington, he might change again and and and flip-flop back to the original American position, which I think is the the more the more natural way of of things.

[00:04:45]Now, anyway, Europe probably after this meeting still has heaved a sigh of relief as the worst outcomes were avoided. But that being said, there are clear warnings that Europe should be very careful.

[00:05:02]And that Europe, in fact, is really heading for a really, really difficult time. And why is this? Well, simply because the Xi Jinping-Trump meeting showed very clearly that the shifting balance of power between the United States and China is now happening at a very rapid pace. And that China, in many, many ways, is now top dog and setting the agenda.

[00:05:30]That shift, of course, was already evident last year when China hit back immediately at Trump's Liberation Day tariffs. It not only immediately raised its tariffs on American products to the same level as the as the Americans did, but of course later on it also retaliated with the rare earth controls, and that of course sent the United States and many of its partners completely into a state of panic. But of course during this visit, the way that the power had shifted was incredibly clearly it was incredibly clearly on stark display. Not only did she give Trump nothing at all, but she also lectured Trump about Taiwan, clearly telling him he must not interfere, while Trump of course from his side went out of his way to praise C and to suck up to him of course any way he could.

[00:06:32]I have such respect for China and the job you've done.

[00:06:36]You're a great leader. I say it to everybody. You're a great leader.

[00:06:39]But it's an honor to be with you. It's an honor to be your friend, and I didn't want the second or the third in the company. I wanted the only the top.

[00:06:47]And they're here today to pay respects to you and to China. And remarkably even the official White House video, [snorts] which was released after this visit, seemed to celebrate China's power more than it celebrates American power.

[00:07:04]So the balance of power has clearly clearly shifted.

[00:07:09]Besides this of course, there's also the issue of trade. Yes, there was no grand bargain sealed, but we should not forget that Europe and China both got hit by the Trump's tariffs, and that only China stood up against them and not Europe, because of course our great leader Ursula von der Leyen went to Scotland to meet Trump in his golf resort, groveled in front of him, and accepted a 15% tariff for all European products. And now, despite American courts ruling many of these tariffs illegal, Trump, of course, wants to rebuild them, is pressuring Europe into accepting a United States-EU trade agreement by July 4th.

[00:08:00]And that, of course, is the 250th celebration of the American independence. And he threatened Europeans that, you know, if they wouldn't accept that agreement, he would raise these tariffs on European cars uh to 25%.

[00:08:13]Now, that, of course, is in stark contrast with China, which has promised to retaliate if new tariffs would be coming, as they consider these tariffs as a violation of the trade truce, which was reached between Trump and Xi in Busan last year, uh November 2025.

[00:08:33]On top of that, there is now, indeed, the confirmation, also from Chinese side, by the way, that there will be a new trade board of trade, which is supposed to manage all these trade disputes. There will be more coordination, there will be more talks between America and China regarding all these tariffs, regarding all these trade. And that, of course, means, you know, we should discuss this in advance before, of course, Trump goes ballistic again with all kind of messages on his Truth Social. So, although no grand bargain has been struck yet, one could clearly envision a scenario where, not too far from now, the American tariffs on Europe will be higher than the American tariffs on China.

[00:09:19]And that, of course, would not only be a complete reversal of everything Trump has said about China since 2017.

[00:09:29]It was all about containing China, pushing back to China, China, China, China. One is very was this very, very big thing. But, of course at the same time this would be an absolute disaster for Europe because of course at the very moment one of the very few things where Europe and the United States could still agree on was a joint economic pushback against China. And that now of course is in danger of being completely undermined by Trump.

[00:10:02]And that of course would leave the Europeans completely isolated against China. So we see here this rift widening very clearly.

[00:10:13]And on top of that where the Americans potentially now could find some modus vivendi with China regarding tariffs.

[00:10:22]Let's see if the new ones agree, but there is a possibility at least. The European Union on the other hand is going the exact opposite direction and is heading for an all-out economic war with China because of this huge Europe-China trade deficit, which by the way widened again dramatically in the first four months of this year. It widened to $113 billion, a massive 24% increase compared to the same four months last year.

[00:10:56]The result is that Europe now over the last six months is now almost as a last option trying to shield itself more and more off from this flood of Chinese exports, in fact copying the Chinese industrial playbook. It has prepared all kind of new acts like the Industrial Accelerator Act, the Cybersecurity Act, which are all meant to protect and support European economies against Chinese and also American competitors.

[00:11:30]And that's not all because actually next month Europe is hoping now to rally even more states to even implement more measures against China. So, that all shows that Europe is now clearly going all in to stop this economic pressure from China and try to save the European economy. And if that wasn't even enough, Europe is of course still continuing its sanctions regime.

[00:11:59]It has as part of its 20th Russian sanctions package blacklisted even more Chinese companies as they're selling dual-use goods to Russia, which of course antagonizes the Chinese even more. Obviously, China is not going to take this and it is already pushing back heavily.

[00:12:23]It criticized Europe severely for all these measures and warned it very clearly that, you know, if you continue with this, we will retaliate even more.

[00:12:34]China over the last months came up with a whole bunch of new laws. One is a very important comprehensive law to protect its own supply chains, effectively making it very hard for Western companies, in particular European companies, to leave Chinese supply chains and dump Chinese suppliers.

[00:12:55]And more importantly, over the last weeks a lot of new precedents have been set by China, which indicate clearly how things between Europe and China are now heating up.

[00:13:10]China for the very first time used its blocking measures to block American sanctions on Chinese companies, telling them simply it's illegal now to comply with these American sanctions and that of course could could be used against European sanctions in the future.

[00:13:29]Secondly, as a reaction of Europe blacklisting these Chinese companies, part of the 20th Russian sanctions package, China for the very first time also placed seven European defense firms on its export control list, in effect banning them from receiving Chinese dual-use items. And then, just last Friday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that Europe's investigation into a Chinese airport scanner company called Nuctech amounted to improper extraterritorial jurisdiction, meaning that it says, "Well, Europe is now enforcing its domestic laws outside its borders in a way that violates international law." And this, again, is the very first time that China uses this kind of wording, this kind of phrasing to protect its own companies.

[00:14:27]So, China is pushing here back heavily.

[00:14:31]Now, from European sides, if history tells us anything, going for economic war, an all-out economic war with China, will end up disastrously. Europe is in no position at all to challenge China. Not only are they completely dependent on China for all kind of products and supplies, of course, completely dependent on Chinese supply chains, which is obvious during the COVID crisis, but at the same time, Europe has done some incredibly stupid things, as for instance, nationalizing the Chinese company Nexperia in the Netherlands, taking it over, in fact, which, of course, then led China to retaliate and said, "Okay, we're going to stop now exporting chips to Europe, which has immediately led to all kind of problems in the automotive sector because of they cuz they of course rely a lot on Chinese chips.

[00:15:32]And then of course the real nuclear option could be that China just shuts down the export of rare earth minerals, effectively shutting down European high-tech industries.

[00:15:45]So this summit between Xi Jinping and Trump is now showing clearly how isolated Europe really is.

[00:15:55]And in fact, I would say that Europe now is at war with almost everybody. Russia is obviously the military enemy.

[00:16:05]China is now the economic enemy. The Americans, or at least the MAGA part, is the cultural enemy. And in some part of course also the economic enemy. And the result of that is quite simple. Because of all this, Europe has now lost access to cheap energy.

[00:16:23]It now wants to save itself and its industry by building a new army against Russia.

[00:16:30]Europe is rapidly de-industrializing.

[00:16:34]It is increasingly heading towards an economic collision with China.

[00:16:40]It has the worst relation ever with the United States, something which is going to get worse before it gets better, if it ever gets better.

[00:16:51]And that shows you how Europe is now really in deep, deep, deep trouble.

[00:16:58]Now to show you where Europe now is at the very moment, I just want to give you two simple examples which point out clearly what the state of affairs now within Europe really is.

[00:17:12]So first of all, there is this annual European Union-China summit.

[00:17:17]Last year, this summit was supposed to be in Brussels and it was a big summit because it was supposed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the European Union Chinese diplomatic relations.

[00:17:32]However, Xi Jinping decided not to show up for obvious reasons, I would say, and as a result, the event was then heavily downgraded, cut to single day, and moved from Brussels to Beijing.

[00:17:49]Now, this year, this summit is supposed to happen again, but the European Commission, in all its anger of what happened last year, and it's all and of course in all its arrogance, refuses now to host this summit because they say Xi Jinping has to show up. Only if he shows up, then we will have the summit.

[00:18:12]Well, obviously, Xi Jinping is not going to show up. He's busy in Beijing receiving all kind of world leaders. As mentioned, he has not yet left China this year.

[00:18:24]He just received Trump, put him back in his place. He's receiving his good friend Putin in a few days, and then again, a whole bunch of new leaders are coming. That being said, China has said, "Well, we can send our Prime Minister, Li Qiang, which of course is also not too bad."

[00:18:44]And now, the result of that is that European Union countries, most notably France and Germany, are now pushing von der Leyen to at least continue with the summit, even if it is without Xi Jinping Xi Jinping because obviously, they do want to talk with China and need to discuss all these issues. So, that tells you everything you need to know about who sets the rules between Europe and China. Secondly, last month there was this Africa forward summit in Kenya where Emmanuel Macron representing not only France but also Europe was directly attacking Chinese influence in Africa.

[00:19:29]And he was telling the African leaders that China is now the predator. And he also said that European countries are not the predators of this century anymore in Africa. This of course is pretty wild coming from the president of a country which heavily colonized Africa before, did all kind of nasty things and is still well known to mingle around a lot in all kind of African countries and its domestic politics.

[00:20:04]Now on top of that, Macron was also pitching a 23 billion euro European Union backed package which was focusing a lot on artificial intelligence. And the logic behind that was that because in the AI race it's all about United States and China, he said that Europe and Africa should work closer together here otherwise they would be dominated by either United States or China. A lot of solutions are made in in the US or made in in China.

[00:20:40]And when you speak about artificial intelligence, okay, a lot of us today are consumers.

[00:20:46]So I think we have a common fight, a common battle together of investment which is to build our strategic autonomy for Europe and Africa. And if we build it together, we will be much stronger.

[00:20:58]So we have here a situation where the African countries are not actually asking Europe to work together on AI but Europe offering them to work in AI despite the very fact that Europe is a third-rate player in AI.

[00:21:15]It seems to me this is a kind of begging from Europe towards these African countries, you know, please work together with us in the AI field. Nobody else wants to work with us anymore. Now, of course, this is unlikely to happen because of course China has open-source AI, which is much cheaper and requires much less energy that produces the American or the European AI. And as a result, of course, that's a much more suitable fit for Africa.

[00:21:48]In any case, if I would be an African leader and I would hear Macron of all people pitching to me about AI, something that Europe is not strong at all, I would tell him shove off. We're going to find the better player here, maybe America, most likely China.

[00:22:07]So, it's really not hard to see how Europe is now increasingly becoming isolated, in fact, begging now other countries to still deal with Europe. And this, of course, underscores the very fact that the proud continent of Europe, and I am a European, is now getting really a unimportant, obsolete, insignificant player in the world. This is now what we have become.

[00:22:41]And of course, it's all because of our own incompetency.

[00:22:46]If we are unable to change things radically and rapidly, then we will remain a continent in decline, a continent in rapid decline, and then we, of course, will be as good as done.

[00:23:02]Well, with this optimistic note, I will end my video. Thank you for watching and we see each other next time. Bye-bye.