How can you not see that they are waiting till trust re-appears.
1 example: If Europe would really partner up, Trump would require Russia to be in the table ( G7). The current situation is nuts and it's not Europe's fault.
Ps. Trump has no interest in peace and prosperity. Haven't you been paying attention? The US has never been this divided and the current leader thinks tweeting is more important.
Trump's only interest is re-election.
The US govt is a huge entity with may players of which the president is one, albeit an important one. The US military, State, academia and other institutions are all actors and they do have an interest in peace and prosperity.
Presidents come and go, but institutions remain and it is important that the relevant institutions adopt a common posture towards China.
The EU cannot afford to wait that long. China isn't taking a pause on its aggression. Indeed, its exploiting the US under Trump, Covid, etc to move aggressively now.
> The current situation is nuts and it's not Europe's fault.
"fault"? It doesn't have to be your fault if the mess still ends on your lap. And Europe (and I'm a European) being neighbours with Eurasia doesnt have the luxury of huge oceans separating it from revanchist powers.
The thing about democracy is, it's a slow process.
Currently the best thing is to wait till November and China knows that.
They are exploiting the situation, but in contrast. I think the "one road, one belt" will fail if they continue their exploitive behaviour.
Taiwan is not an easy topic right now, because it's a bit too early. Since Western democracy under Trump is not United :(
As soon as we can, harder measures should be employed.
But the EU cannot wait for Trump to go away because if he wins reelection that could be 5 years away. We don't have that time. The EU needs to work with what its got - work with India, Australia, PacRim countries.
The problem is that the EU is itself split with different interests. Someone has to provide leadership. The US president is the natural option but Trump has not stepped up. Someone else needs to - it cannot be Merkel as she's stepping down soon, but we urgently need leadership on the issue.
But that would cause additional problems because of his ego and childish behaviour. So the best thing currently, is still too wait. It will happen if Trump gets re-elected.
It's not easy for someone new to step-up immediately as the so-called leader of Western democracy.
We all know that Obama and Merkel were potentials/it and Trump isn't. We'll c.
Ps. I think the current/best move to counter China already started. But it seems to bit below the radar currently.
It's European money, that is taxed. Not money earned outside of the country.
American corporations squeezing money out of European countries would be a more accurate description.
Basic economic insight :)
It's not like those European countries have a gun to their head. They can always just create their own Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony etc and stop using the products of foreign corporations. As a European, I personally very much like the services provided by these foreign corporations. I have many issues with them, but they are way better than (most of) the things I've seen made here.
That they can create alternatives is besides the point and has nothing to do with the digital-tax you were talking about.