For decades, Westerners have been dazzled by the Chinese Eldorado, this market with endless potential that was well worth putting up with some hindrance.
Experience got the better of this naivety.
Xi Jinping's authoritarian imperialism and Donald Trump's instinctive revolt have combined to bring Europeans out of their blindness.
The Covid-19 crisis has finished waking them up.
The Europe that the Chinese president faced on Monday is not only aware of the expansionist aims of the communist giant, but it is beginning to take the measure of its own strength.
Access to its common market justifies a firm demand for reciprocity.
The pressure exerted on Beijing for respect for human and political rights, in Hong Kong as in Xinjiang, is legitimately part of a dialogue between powers.
The mirage of the "silk roads", of which the partners are still awaiting the fruits, or the ostentatious "diplomacy of the mask" are no longer enough to hide foreign policy
This article is for subscribers only.
You have 51% left to discover.
Subscribe: 1 € the first month
Can be canceled at any time
Enter your email
Already subscribed?
Log in
