How China's industrial strength poses a big threat to Europe

New Delhi, April 24 Europe is losing its strategic autonomy as it is getting increasingly dependent on Chinese factories for goods, even for the Green Transition in energy that it is aiming for, according to an article.

The article in Brussels Signal highlights that China now controls 80 per cent of the world’s solar panels, 75 per cent of the batteries, and 70 per cent of the electric vehicles, which represents "a total monopoly on the energy and mobility of the next generation".

"This is an immediate existential threat to the European way of life. We have spent decades lecturing the rest of the world on values while simultaneously outsourcing our entire industrial spine to the East," it lamented.

It pointed out that while the US is engaged in flashy and reckless warfare in the Middle East, China is racing ahead with advanced technologies in AI, robotics, and advanced manufacturing, which will determine who emerges triumphant in the next 50 years. Europe, on the other hand, "is busy regulating its own remaining industries into the grave".

The article stated that "for Europe, this is a strategic death trap. In the Green Transition that Brussels champions, we are not the leaders we pretend to be. We are merely the most desperate customers and headed for an existential reliance on Chinese silicon and lithium".

It also highlighted that China is currently involved in port projects in over 90 countries, effectively encircling the globe’s maritime choke points. Every port they operate, even within European waters, is a silent outpost for a new era where the terms of trade are dictated entirely by the East.

Besides, the article flagged China’s ambition to turn its renminbi into a global reserve currency as the final stage of the trap. For decades, the privilege of the dollar and the euro allowed the West to borrow cheaply and fund its massive social safety nets. If China succeeds in providing a credible alternative to the Western financial infrastructure, Europe will be unable to fund its welfare states, it adds.

"The threat to Europe is total. It is the threat of becoming a vassal continent. If we continue to allow our industries to collapse while we nurture bureaucracy, we will wake up in a world where our energy security is 'guaranteed' by Beijing, where our infrastructure is owned by Chinese firms, and our political decisions are subject to foreign approval. We are losing the ability to choose our own destiny because we no longer own the tools required to build it. If we keep lecturing the world while self-destructing, we will be written out of history," it warned.

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