The old proverb ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ isn’t just a timeless bit of wisdom. Here in Europe it seems to be an active operating principle of self-harm, one that is cleverly exploited by China’s leadership. Recent trade-related dramas suggest that Europe (always a collection of self-interested nation states with short-term horizons) have inverted […]
Read more »
Is it Germany’s Chancellor, or the European Union’s Trade Commissioner? A high-powered German political and trade delegation visited China for two days at the end of August. It was led by the indomitable, Teflon-coated German Chancellor, Mrs. Angela Merkel, accompanied by nine of her own government’s cabinet ministers together with a bevy of German industrialists. […]
Read more »
Over the past few years the overseas acquisition efforts of China’s ‘Go Global’ companies have often resembled those of a either a bulldozer or an excavator. The difference between a bulldozer and an excavator is one of approach and purpose: the bulldozer pushes things brutally aside, whereas the excavator patiently digs trenches. The first allows […]
Read more »