Joschka Fischer is right about the US defending its hegemony at the cost of its economy. Last month Google announced its decision to withhold its transfer of software from future Huawei smartphones after considerable pressure from the Trump administration. The ongoing Sino-American battle is not just about technology, but about dominance. But this “break in the existing trade relationship” with China will “incur immense costs” to the US economy.

The author says the move poses an existential threat to Huawei, due to its dependence on American chips. As much as half of its global market could disappear, taking a toll on its 5G networking equipment, which was the immediate cause of this rivalry. But the real cause is the Americans’ fear of losing their position of global pre-eminence in technology, and the Chinese’ determination to end it. But the US “will not hand over its dominant global position without a fight.”

No doubt the US sent the message that its exports of technology are no longer just a matter of business, they are all about projecting power, putting supremacy over market. But this competition also reveals how the global webs of interdependence between hardware and software are intertwined. For China and the west, the contest shows very clearly how vulnerable both sides are to the other and how impossible it is for either side to achieve technological autarchy, even if that were desirable.

Huawei is one of the few companies big enough to develop its own replacement for Google products, and it has to do so for the Chinese market. But to manufacture something that could compete outside China will take years. All smaller players across the globe, that are dependent on global trade, find themselves embroiled in a tug-of-war, unwilling to take sdies, unless they are strong enough to resist both American and Chinese pressure.

With China and the US both demanding “clarity,” the author says, “even economic giants like the European Union, India, and Japan would be faced with an intractable economic dilemma.”

Regardless who will emerge victorious in this ongoing new cold war, both the US and China will suffer. The author urges Europe to devise a “geopolitical strategy” for the 21st century. Now that the EU has prevented a populist takeover of the European Parliament last month, it must “get to work safeguarding its prosperity and sovereignty in an age of Sino-American rupture.” He expects a “turbulence” in Europe, that could pose a “fundamental challenge” to – especially – Germany’s export, following a turmoil in the global economy.

Despite their reliance on US security guarantee and trade, EU exporters have come to depend on trade with China. Under this circumstance they are forced to choose between the two , thus creating a “a lose-lose outcome,” because the two superpowers demand loyalty from their trade partners. As an ally to the US they would avoid the risks of punitive tariffs on European exports. But their reliance on the Chinese market makes them to vulnerable retaliation from Beijing.