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\u201cWe Germans look towards Moscow and Warsaw. Paris and London are cities of the past,<\/em>\u201d a German acquaintance confided to me only three years ago. It was still the golden age for a country convinced that globalization, so beneficial to its industry, would last forever. Angela Merkel, hailed as the \u201cindispensable European\u201d by The Economist<\/em>, was considered the most powerful leader in Europe, if not the world!<\/p>\n However, three years ago, the decisions that would seal Germany\u2019s contemporary fate had already been made by successive Chancellors. They all emphasized their close relationship with Vladimir Putin, showing no critical distance when it came to his gas. Hence, Merkel\u2019s unilateral and far-reaching 2011 decision to dismantle all of Germany\u2019s nuclear power plants. It was decreed that the axis of a new Europe would hinge on the crucial bilateral German-Russian relationship, crowned by Nord Stream, flowing proudly beneath the Baltic Sea. Downstream, the partnership with China would guarantee delightful trade surpluses.<\/p>\n For the country\u2019s economic and political elites, the path seemed clear, regardless of whether German industry was rooted in another century. The combination of high-quality finished products, access to cheap energy, and Chinese markets gave the illusion that Germany could withstand the looming dominance of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n Yet today, Germany is facing a true existential crisis, as its economic model lies in ruins. It no longer knows who its partners are; it no longer knows who it is. Germany doesn\u2019t know what it excels at anymore, and it has lost sight of its role in the world.<\/p>\n Chancellor Olaf Scholz, once a staunch advocate of Germany\u2019s special relationship with China, is emblematic of this confusion. Between 2011 and 2018, when he served as mayor of Hamburg, Scholz made numerous visits to China, where the country\u2019s top leaders courted him fervently. Now, as Chancellor, he has been unable to support a European vote to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Paralyzed by fears of trade wars, Scholz now openly acknowledges Germany\u2019s dependency on China\u2014a dependency that poses immense challenges for his country.<\/p>\n The reality is that Chinese products are now flooding the German market, and they are highly competitive. Unlike Germany, China\u2014having massively invested in 21st-century technologies\u2014now delivers goods that are not only cheaper, but also of higher quality than those made in Germany.<\/p>\n Germany\u2019s decline is structural, compounded by a loss of autonomy. Such are the side effects of long-standing trade surpluses. Profits may have been reaped, but at the cost of dependency and sovereignty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWe Germans look towards Moscow and Warsaw. Paris and London are cities of the past,\u201d a German acquaintance confided to me only three years ago. It was still the golden age for a country convinced that globalization, so beneficial to its industry, would last forever. Angela Merkel, hailed as the \u201cindispensable European\u201d by The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[648942743,648942742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-export-machine","category-trade-excesses"],"yoast_head":"\n