Europe's 'Decoupling' from China: Just US Foreign Policy, Now with European Accents
The Al Jazeera piece highlights Europe's supposed 'decoupling' from China, citing the Nexperia case as evidence of continued U.S. influence. What they don't explicitly state is the decades-long pattern: Europe has rarely deviated from strategic American foreign policy, especially when it concerns rivals. From NATO expansion mirroring U.S. Cold War objectives to the Iraq War's 'coalition of the
willing,' European 'autonomy' often looks suspiciously like synchronized swimming with the U.S. Navy. This isn't about industrial policy; it's about geopolitical realignment dictated from Washington, packaged as 'Europe's choice.' One might wonder, how many times must Europe demonstrate its commitment to being a junior partner before the concept of 'strategic autonomy' becomes an actual policy,
rather than a polite fiction for multilateral summits?