The geopolitical chess game in today's world is becoming more complicated and tense than ever before.
Recently, a series of seemingly isolated but circling events have pushed the tense atmosphere of the game to a new culmination.
From a top-level US-Russian diplomatic “discourse” to Russian military operations in the battlefield, to the EU’s accidental turning of its head to China in its own trouble, a dangerous chain reaction is forming.
Russian sword.
In the past two days, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin originally planned to meet in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss a solution to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
However, just when the outside world expected the two sides to bring a turning point to the deadlock, Trump suddenly unilaterally announced the cancellation of the meeting on the grounds that he "didn't want to waste time having meaningless meetings with Russia".
This resounding "face-shaking" undoubtedly adds another layer of frost to the already tense US-Russia relationship.
Faced with this diplomatic cold, the Kremlin’s response was direct and vigorous, quickly drawing the world’s gaze back from the conference table to the smoke-filled battlefield and deep missile launches.
Russia has used practical actions to show that since the channels of verbal communication have been closed, it should speak with military strength. The Russian army immediately launched a series of "big moves", the intensity and breadth of which were enough to make any opponent shudder.
First, on the conventional battlefield, the Russian military's tactical strategy changed significantly.
At present, the Russian army has absolute initiative on the frontal battlefield and is controlling the offensive in at least seven important urban areas. It has no intention of giving Ukraine any breathing space.
More deterrently, the Russian army has begun to strike the “backdoors” of the conflict with precision – mercenaries and military aid delivered to Ukraine by Western countries.
Russia has clearly acknowledged that the conflict will be difficult to end as long as the sources of aid from the West continue.
Thus, a "clean-up operation" against high-value targets began.
In the Kharkov region, Russian intelligence forces provided accurate intelligence, and two “Iskander” ballistic missiles surfaced, precisely targeting a camp of Western mercenaries.
The attack killed more than 600 mercenaries, many of whom came from France, Poland and Britain.
This heavy blow not only dealt a heavy blow to foreign military forces on the front line, but also issued a severe warning to NATO countries: your personnel are also under our firepower.
If the attack on mercenaries is tough at the tactical level, then the strategic nuclear force exercise that follows it is the ultimate showdown at the strategic level.
President Putin personally took command, and a three-in-one nuclear strike exercise covering land, sea and air was staged in a shocking manner.
At the Plesetsk launch site, the land-based "Ars" intercontinental missile rose to the ground, dragging the long tail flame to the sky; under the frozen deep waters of the Barents Sea, the "Briansk" strategic nuclear submarine quietly launched the "deep blue" submarine ballistic missile; and at millimeters of altitude, the Gra-95MS strategic bomber also dropped a deadly air-based cruise missile.
The timing and scale of this exercise are very important.
It is not only a sharp response to NATO’s recent “solid midday” nuclear exercise, but it is also a proclamation to the entire Western world that Russia’s nuclear arsenal is not only huge, but also reliable.
In order to ensure that everything is smooth and to avoid the embarrassment of the failure of last year's launch of the "Salmat" missile, the Russian military this time selected the technical mature, long-tested missile model.
The signal from this operation is crystal clear: Russia's strategic trump card is still solid and effective enough to defend national interests in any extreme situation.
EU urgently seeks medical treatment
The anger of Russia has plunged the offshore-looking European continent into a deep “sickness” and anxiety.
The long-lasting sanctions against Russia have not destroyed the Russian economy as expected. Instead, Europe itself has suffered from energy shortages and soaring inflation.
Today, seeing Russia not only fighting more and more bravely on the conventional battlefield, but also unhesitatingly showing its trump card of nuclear weapons, Europe's sense of security has almost dropped to freezing point.
Amidst this intertwined sense of powerlessness and fear, the EU has made a confusing and risky decision: to target China, which has always remained neutral in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
In the just-passed 19th round of sanctions against Russia, the EU unexpectedly blacklisted 12 Chinese companies.
The reason given is that these companies "assist Russia in circumventing sanctions", especially in areas such as oil trade.
However, this reason pales in the face of facts.
Even the EU's own senior diplomats have publicly admitted that there is no evidence that China has provided weapons to Russia.
Today, in the absence of any evidence, the EU has roused sanctions on Chinese companies, revealing the real motives behind it.
This is undoubtedly a desperate act of “healing emergency”.
Since direct sanctions on Russia are ineffective, the EU is trying to indirectly put pressure on the Putin government by attacking Russia's important trading partners.
But they used the wrong target and made the wrong calculation.
Ironically, not long before the sanctions list was announced, China and the EU had just held a high-level economic and trade dialogue, and the EU even warmly invited China to go to Brussels to deepen cooperation.
This first-second smile face-to-face, after-second knock-on practice, not only exposed the chaos and short-sightedness of its policy, but also showed its strategic dependence to follow the pace of the United States, in order to sacrifice its own interests as "gun ash".
The EU seems to have forgotten that unprovoked attacks on Chinese companies will not only fail to solve Ukraine's problems, but will create even greater trouble for itself.
In this regard, China’s attitude is clear and firm: we are not accustomed to this irrational behavior.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition at first time, and made clear that it will take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of its enterprises.
In China's counter-countermeasures toolbox, there are enough chips to make the EU feel the pain.
The experience of the Netherlands is a lesson from the past. It followed the United States to curb China in the export of lithography machines and the "Anshi Incident." As a result, it not only forced China to accelerate independent research and development in related fields, but also caused orders from its leading company ASML to drop sharply.
China has the ability and determination to protect its enterprises from bullying.
More importantly, the EU is also deeply dependent on China on critical strategic resources.
In today's world, from new energy vehicles to high-end chips to wind power generation, the "lifeblood" of almost all cutting-edge industries is inseparable from rare earths.
China, on the other hand, has more than 90% of the world's rare earth refining technology. Recently, China has begun to implement rare earth export controls, which is undoubtedly the "sword of Damocles" hanging over the head of European manufacturing.
Internal EU reports have long warned that 100,000 jobs in its key industrial chains are directly restricted by China’s supply chain.
While relying on China’s strategic resources to keep the economy running, while putting Chinese companies on the sanctions list, this contradictory crazy move is nothing more than “breaking blood” on itself.
In the final analysis, the trade volume between China and Europe is as high as 780 billion US dollars, far exceeding the trade volume between Europe and the United States. This is the ballast stone of bilateral relations.
If the EU continues to run on this wrong path, leaving the sanctions incidents to ferment, not only will the supply of rare earth be hindered, but even important agendas such as the resumption of the Sino-European investment agreement and the electric car tariff negotiations will be blurred.
Politicizing normal and legal commercial cooperation and trying to "leverage Chinese companies to dominate Russia" will only end up lifting a stone and breaking your own feet.
China's position remains the same: win-win cooperation is the right path, but cooperation must be based on mutual respect. Any attempt to harm China's interests through pressure will surely be resolutely retaliated.
References:
The European Union approved new sanctions against Russia, listing 12 mainland Chinese and Hong Kong entities.