Europe Turns to China at Davos
After the leaked texts and tariff threats, strategic autonomy revealed as dependency with better branding.
Emmanuel Macron texted Donald Trump like a guy sending a risky DM to an ex. My friend, I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.
Trump screenshotted it. Posted it on Truth Social.
Macron’s text was textbook bargaining. Open with validation: We are totally in line on Syria. Dangle a carrot: We can do great things on Iran. Pivot to the complaint. Float the grand offer; a G7 summit in Paris with Ukraine, Denmark, Syria, and Russia in the margins.
A proposal to resurrect the Concert of Europe. Macron as host. Major powers settling disputes over dinner.
Germany and Britain killed it within hours. Nobody wanted to sit with Moscow while Ukraine burns.
So much for the indispensable mediator.
Then came the Board of Peace response. Trump’s proposed alternative to the UN requires a billion dollars for permanent membership. Hungary and Belarus signed up. France didn’t.
Trump told reporters: Nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon. I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes, and he’ll join.
200%. On Burgundy. Because a NATO ally declined to fund a vanity project.
This is alliance management now. Private overtures get published. Policy disagreements get answered with sectoral annihilation.
Days later, Davos. Macron showed up wearing dark sunglasses. Eye infection, his staff said. A diminished European leader, shielding himself, lecturing a room his own officials called Little America. The US delegation so large it dominated every corridor.
His speech invoked respect over bullies. Warned against the law of the strongest. Called for European preference and economic sovereignty.
Here’s the thing about sovereignty rhetoric.
Macron’s reindustrialization strategy runs on Chinese capital, Chinese technology, Chinese engineers.
Northern France hosts Battery Valley. Gigafactories in Douai and Dunkirk. Critical to Europe’s EV supply chain. Also, functionally, Chinese operations on French soil. Inside the factories, Chinese engineers supervise French recruits through translation apps.
Macron calls for decoupling from unfair competitors. His factories depend on one of them.
The accusation that Trump is pushing Europe straight into China’s arms isn’t propaganda. If American tariffs close the US market, European manufacturers have two options: absorb the hit or pivot East.
Battery Valley suggests which way the wind blows.
Vice-Premier He Lifeng spoke at Davos with the calm of someone watching rivals self-destruct. China will open the door wider. Tariffs and trade wars have no winners. While Washington demands tribute and Paris begs for relevance, Beijing offers stability.
Chinese batteries. Chinese processing. Chinese investment. In exchange, silence on matters Beijing cares about.
Europe’s green transition requires components China dominates. Washington wants hard decoupling.
Macron’s impossible position is the European position writ small. Preach sovereignty while importing dependency. Denounce bullies while texting them for summits. Call for strategic autonomy while the industrial base runs on someone else’s expertise.
The Élysée tried personal charm. Got a Truth Social screenshot.
Tried grand bargains. Got vetoed by Berlin.
Tried defiant speeches. Got a 200% wine tariff threat.
What remains is a leader behind dark glasses, calling for respect in a room that stopped listening.
References:
Trump Shares Message From France’s Macron Questioning Greenland Moves