Europe is now spending a harsh winter due to the inflation first ever in 40 years and the worst energy crisis in history.

This was compounded by price hikes. As a result, European residents are surviving hard time and factories and shops are closed one after another.

One of the ways out of the current economic crisis is to diversify external trade. This is common economic knowledge.

But Europe is wavering in its attitude just reading the face of the “inspector”- the U.S.

Recently, Germany is under pressure from the U.S. to stop China’s investment in Hamburg Port, one of the three major ports in Europe. Meanwhile, the Netherlands has also come under pressure from Washington to limit its semiconductor manufacturing equipment export to China.

EU and European countries should draw a lesson from the Ukrainian crisis.

Ukrainian crisis caused by the U.S.-led eastward advance of NATO has disturbed the security of Europe. Taking advantage of this, the U.S. has pushed EU and the European countries into the quagmire of the Ukrainian crisis.

I want to remind you that the U.S. used the Ukrainian situation as a good opportunity to create a windfall by conducting a large-scale transaction while the entire Europe is suffering a nightmare of security crisis, economic crisis and energy crisis due to the Ukrainian crisis.

As reported by the Bloomberg news agency, the U.S. sold its liquefied gas to Europe at four-fold price of its domestic sale despite the fact that Europe has already suffered a tremendous loss of US$ 1 trillion after giving up gas import from Russia.

According to the data published by the American magazine “Foreign Policy”, the weapons sales of the U.S. to NATO members increased two-fold in 2022 in comparison to 2021, driving up the profit of the U.S. munitions industry and share prices of many enterprises to the highest-ever level.

There is a saying “Friend in need is a friend indeed”. I am now wondering what a word is proper to describe a friend who lives by racketeering his friend when he is in need now.

Moreover, the U.S. once again proved the fact that there is no limit on its greed by publishing “Inflation Reduction Act”, the U.S.-priority law, taking no account of the straightened circumstances of its allies who are struggling to overcome the current economic crisis.

The American newspaper “Wall Street Journal” argued that the U.S. should demand that the allies actively join its policy of restraining semiconductor development in China in return for providing them with subsidy for electric cars. The Netherlands also made an unexpected announcement that it would limit the export of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China.

Now we can easily guess how desperately the U.S. is working behind the curtains.

It is the evil design of the U.S. to contain and weaken the radical economic growth of China even at the cost of sacrificing entire Europe.

The total amount of trade by Germany, the Netherlands and France between China are no less than US$ 235 billion, US$ 100 billion and US$ 80 billion respectively. For them and other European countries, it is tantamount to a suicidal act to exclude China from the global industrial chain and to reject Chinese market as required by the U.S.

The U.S. is instigating its allies to seek confrontation and use it as a good chance to hit the jackpot and to fish in troubled waters. EU and European countries should see through such evil intention of the U.S. and break from their conventional habit of depending on the U.S. at the earliest date possible.

Independent foreign policy will be the only choice for Europe.

Son U Jin

Researcher of Korea-Europe Association