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Europe’s summer from hell bleeds into autumn as Trump and Xi turn the screws
Brussels flounders and others set the pace of global power politics, so commentators reach for comparison in Chinese history
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Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels
If Brussels bureaucrats returning from their long summer breaks this week were wondering what they missed, the local press had them covered.
Unbecoming scenes at June’s Nato summit, the “hopelessly one-sided” trade deal with the United States in July, as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s refusal to travel to Belgium for that month’s summit with EU leaders, were all cited by the Brussels media outlet Euractiv.
“Now talk of a European moment has given way to fears of a European ‘century of humiliation’, akin to that which befell China when it was ravaged by colonial powers in the 19th century,” its columnist wrote.
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“Europe’s ‘century of humiliation’ could be just beginning,” a Politico Europe headline agreed.
The two months from hell were slammed elsewhere as “Europe’s summer of surrender”, its “summer of submission” and its “summer of geopolitical subservience”.
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The bad news is that the summer from hell has bled right into autumn.
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