By CGTN’s Zhou Yu
US president Donald Trump visited Europe last week, and despite Trump’s efforts to use economic and military powers to leverage better deals for the US, “he has failed utterly.”
According to current affairs commentator Einar Tangen, “what emerged from this trip is a stronger EU where … Merkel [is] coming out and saying we are on our own. Macro has also emerged. It is quite clear that from now on, the EU would do what is best for the EU, because America is certainly doing what is best for America”.
Tangen attributed this result to Trump, who he describes as “not diplomatic” and someone he openly admits that he did not vote for. “These continuing slip-ups and inability to understand even basic concepts of the EU are really being to set in and bother most Europeans, and most of the world.”
In Trump’s punches to counter globalization, he essentially creates a power vacuum which, in its very nature, would benefit China as “the chasm that is opening up is between the US and the Europe” and the world becomes hungrier for leadership.
Michele Geraci, head of the China Program Global Policy Institute, takes a more neutral stand on the outcomes of Trump’s visit.
In response to Merkel’s claim that “we are on our own,” Geraci responds that “it is not clear whether [Merkel] means me on my own, me my country on my own, or me Europe on my own. There are different layers of isolation, and we know the question Europe needs to face is: Is Germany going to become European or is Europe going to become Germanized”.
“If [Trump] does not close the door a little bit, the industries may suffer a lot. The game Trump is playing is making sure on trade, things get a bit tougher, but on the investment side, things get a little bit more open. The US does not need trade…but it needs capital.”
“One of the main purposes of the European Union is to forget the concept of the country borders … and to continue to expand and include more and more countries. The European Union should be a seed for a peaceful community of people that exchange and trade.”
