The Chinese have invested hundreds of billions of euros in Greece, most notably in the port at Piraeus. The implicit quid pro quo is the Greek government’s willingness to block EU resolutions on Chinese human rights. The EU and the US are unhappy about this state of affairs, but there have been no meaningful repercussions to date.
I see two significant lessons in this:
- It illustrates the fundamental differences between the challenges presented by the Soviet Union and China. The former was principally an ideological and military adversary; the consequences of surrendering to it were understood to be a military occupation and a massive change to the occupied country’s socio-economic system. China, on the other hand, is willing to invest large sums of money, and only asks for silence on issues that don’t directly affect the country in question in return. You can easily understand why the Greeks (and others) would see this as a good deal, particularly in an age of EU-imposed austerity.
- “America First” is no way to compete with this kind of challenge. You can’t beat something with nothing but complaints and threats.