The correct description of the Western reaction to the deal as “… greeted with a shrug by underwhelmed analysts” by a brilliant Jan 4 China News essay has exposed the understated insanity that many mainstream pundits remain ignorant and naïve about China after Deng Xiao-ping .

Fortunately, some EU leaders, especially Merkel of Germany, are not (EU official statement on ‘Key elements of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment 2020 Dec 30).

You may (choose to) overlook all the socio-economic achievements of China over the last 30 years, but amid the happening COVID-19 pandemic the European leaders cannot close their eyes to the success of Beijing’s biopolitics and administrative efficiency.

When writing this article with my MS Word 2003, the term ‘biopolitics’ is regarded by the doc program as wrong spelling. ‘Biopolitics’ and ‘Biopower’ are two of the many significant concepts coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault in his 1975-76 College de France course ‘Society must be defended’.

Many American academics, however, chose to ignore them, leaving these ideas almost totally unknown to the American scholars and public (here is a link to the key concepts of Foucault written in English and edited by D. Taylor).

In view of Beijing’s successes in putting the COVID-19 risks under control and in reviving the main street economy within just a few months (the US can only pump up the Wall Street by printing money), the EU leaders with sanity know the meaningfulness of striking a deal with China for at least three reasons.

First, fifteen Asia-Pacific countries have already concluded the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations began in 2012, BBC news Nov 16). They can no longer afford to lag behind again.

Second, Beijing’s governance, or ‘Governmentality’ in Foucault’s term, has proved China’s reliability and durability for productive partnership.

Third, which is the most important one, the USA’s global leadership and reliability as a partner or ally are all fading. While Trump is still struggling to contest against the Nov election results and has summoned his supporters to rally on Nov 6 (USA Today news Dec 31), Biden is also not reliable for his old age, his aggressive next-in-rank Kamala Harris (her loyalty is in question The Guardian Jan 3), his uneasy relation with the progressives, his tension with the Trump supporters …….

Thanks to the Brexit, more and more EU leaders have crawled out of insanity.

The opinions expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily those of China News.

Categories: Finance & Economy

Tags: biopolitics, China, EU-China Investment Agreement, European Union, M. Foucault, RCEP