A doomed romance

After this war in Europe, nothing will be the same.

- CATHRIN SCHAER

That was the message from Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Union's decision-making body, after she held a video conference with China's President Xi Jinping last month.

The Europeans were trying to convince China that supporting Russia in its two-and-a-half-month-old invasion of Ukraine was a bad idea. Despite the EU being China's biggest trading partner - the two did €586 billion worth of business last year - it's unclear whether Beijing will see it Brussels' way.

Gradually, many Europeans are coming to see the Ukraine war as the beginning of a new kind of ideological battle, a global fight between democracy and autocracy. So what they want to know is this: whose side are the Chinese really on?

The Germans don't seem to think it's theirs. Late last month, the relatively new German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, travelled to the other side of the world. Whenever former leader Angela Merkel made this trip, she stopped off in China first. However, Scholz went to Japan.

Some said it was because of the pandemic in China. But others said he was sending a signal. Some local media even called it his "anti-China trip".