US launches spy balloon: It's time for the China era change, chancellor!

Temperatures plummet to freezing between the US and China after a spy balloon was launched.

But the case also has serious consequences for Germany.

A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.

Even the makers of James Bond are jealous of the idea: a Chinese spy balloon “lost” over the USA and is shot down there on the orders of the US President.

What sounds like over-the-top cinematic action is actually the next chapter in the Cold War between two superpowers, which could even end in a hot one if those involved aren't very careful.

The latest incident, which is highly embarrassing for Beijing, interrupts the latest efforts at detente by both countries and recalls a moment of shock last caused by the American four-star general Mike Minihan, when he warned in drastic terms of an impending attack by China on Taiwan: " My gut feeling tells me that we will fight in 2025.”

Germany and Europe need a China strategy that also takes risks into account

Luckily it's not that far yet.

But it is already clear that the ever more aggressive actions of the Beijing dictator Xi are taking away the Europeans' leeway to maneuver between the two superpowers and put their own trade interests first.

Manfred Weber, head of Europe's bourgeois parties, is rightly calling for the free world to join forces in order to prepare for the massive systemic competition and not naively stumble into the next big crisis.

Especially in Germany, as before in Russia policy, many have not yet heard the shot.

As if there were no turning point, the chancellor most recently courted the Beijing leadership as a traveling salesman, very much in the style of his overly trusting predecessor, Angela Merkel.

And while medium-sized companies are now giving new China investments a wide berth,

In addition to an answer to Biden's new, unfair US subsidy policy, Germany and Europe need a China strategy that no longer follows Scholz's business-first thinking, but instead takes a look at the risks and formulates answers: companies must Stress tests reveal their dependence on China, state export guarantees are stopped and state-owned companies like Huawei are excluded from projects to build critical infrastructure in Germany.

It's time for the China Era.

Those who do not recognize this have learned nothing from the catastrophe in Ukraine.