This would be big... Lithuanian prime minister says they made a strategic mistake by allowing a Taiwanese representative office to open in Vilnius under the name “Taiwanese" “I think Lithuania really jumped in front of a train and lost"

🇸🇰🇪🇺⚖️It took a while, but the Commission is finally, belatedly, getting tough on Fico's softcore rule of law crisis. While not as severe as in 🇭🇺🇵🇱, the slowly crawling dismantling of checks and balances by the Slovak government is finally getting the attention it deserves. 1/

We are currently clean on OPSEC

La France, sous un feu croisé de désinformation russe et américaine Depuis le début d’année, les réseaux prorusses et les comptes trumpistes ciblent de plus en plus la France. Avec des méthodes différentes mais un récit convergent, ils représentent un défi inédit. www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeur...

PALANTIR is "Like Uber for authoritarians." Any time the Trump regime says "AI", what you should hear is "repression as a service": 1. AI as an excuse to consolidate data 2. AI to execute orders that humans would refuse "Europe, do me a favour and don't contribute to a worldwide tyranny machine."

Can an alliance divided against itself compete with China? – Jonathan A. Czin: ‘The common denominator for today’s Russia, China, and the United States is a conviction that a more coherent, unified Europe is not in their interest. Each, in its own way, works to make that outcome less likely.’

‼️🩸A bloodbath for the German auto trade with China in 2025: 📉70% drop in mid-sized saloon car exports 📉38% drop in large engine cars 📉39% fall in small ones 📉54% drop in small station wagons 📉23% for larger ones

Interesting to monitor for sure but, given the services-heavy makeup of the British economy, I'm not sure how much value the UK experience holds for continental Europe.

One of my most deeply held beliefs is that refusing to name truth makes you stupid--literally degrades your intellect.

Beijing’s saber-rattling conceals the real possibility of a loss in Taiwan, write Bonnie S. Glaser and Zack Cooper.

What a difference 9 years makes: the UN's 2015 future population estimates for China versus the UN's 2024 future population estimates for China

All this big talk of geopolitical, independent Europe in Davos AND in the European Parliament, then MEPs vote to delay the much vaunted Mercosur trade deal by potentially 2 years.

Germany’s €3b EV subsidy program open to Chinese brands. Environment Minister Schneider: “I am convinced of the quality of EU & German brands... I can't see any evidence of this postulated major influx of Chinese car manufacturers in Germany, either in figures or on the roads"

Putin’s spokesman encouraging Trump to seize Greenland: “There are international experts who think that in solving the question of adding Greenland, Trump will go down in history — not just the history of the United States, but world history”. 🇷🇺 can’t believe its luck www.ft.com/content/4b16...

Until now, 🇨🇳 has pushed for a sector-wide minimum price deal and opposed the idea of carmakers seeking stand-alone agreements with the 🇪🇺. This may signal a change in that stance, allowing both sides to save face. Would send an 🇪🇺🇨🇳 truce signal just as 🇺🇸 threatens 🇪🇺 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Easy to miss in all the Western hemisphere action but China continues to ramp up its pressure on Japan over Tokyo's support for Taiwan. Beijing's measures "may be aiming to fuel domestic criticism of Takaichi". Aka political interference via economic means. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

This is appalling. Criminals are targeting, and stealing from, Meta's own users using Meta's own tools and Meta's chief concern is how to hide that fact, rather than to actually stop them. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Required reading for those European capitals that are still in denial. As a recent Rhodium note cited by the FT stresses, a weak renminbi, persistent deflation and excess capacity in China will erode the bite of conventional trade defence tools. New thinking is needed www.ft.com/content/079f...

Before returning to hibernation, I want to share one of the most fascinating chats I had last year. The great political theorist Ivan Krastev on why Europe feels disoriented, and how speed, psychology and habit matter as much as power in this moment.

While it's great that the EU found a way to keep financing Ukraine, the failure to agree on the usage of Russian assets is yet another mark of fecklessness from a bloc that seems intent on sleepwalking into geopolitical irrelevance.

Fantastic piece of journalism by the AP. A map of the 145 Russian sabotage and disruption incidents across Europe. These are not random acts. "Russia wants to drain Europe's investigative resources with its sabotage campaign, officials say." apnews.com/projects/rus...

Icymi, because I did: MI6 chief warns that tech giants are closer to running the world than governments.

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas has stated that ahead of its 2026 parliamentary elections, Armenia requested ‘similar help to fight the malign influence [sic], like [the EU] granted to Moldova’.

@laurentiuplesca.bsky.social and myself explain that investing in democracy is investing in security for @gmfus.bsky.social. The Black Sea region is now the frontline of the contest between democracies and authoritarianism. Ignore democracy there at the entire EU's peril. tinyurl.com/2mb76cjd

This comes days after the CSDDD was defanged. CBAM could be next. Someone should count up the man/woman hours that were dedicated to introducing EU legislative initiatives that were subsequently unwound. Of course the EU doesn't have a monopoly on this: remember the IRA?

🇹🇷 What does the new US National Security Strategy mean for Türkiye? 🌍 GMF’s latest analysis from expert Ian Lesser explores how the strategy’s priorities—from a reduced US role in Middle East security to sharper transatlantic debates

DeepSeek is using banned Nvidia chips in race to build next model – The Information

Great summary of the main innovations of the just announced strengthening of EU FDI rules. Mandatory screening in extra critical sectors is the only real strengthening. By contrast, the process remains “exclusive responsibility of the member state” and the EU isn’t given any new enforcement powers.

New FSR raid targeting China’s Temu. Likely a sign of things to come from a Commission that is promising to use its tools in a more proactive manner www.ft.com/content/657c...

Beijing is set to limit access to Nvidia’s advanced H200 chips despite Donald Trump’s decision to allow the export of the technology to China as it pushes to achieve self-sufficiency in semiconductor production.

America won’t recover from the strategic blunders of this president www.ft.com/content/ac63...

BASF CEO backs EU trade action against China: “When clear dumping is evident, the EU should intervene & send strong signals to protect its own industry—though very carefully & targeted. The problem is anti-dumping cases take 18 months. That needs to go faster” www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/...

Had yesterday's Communication been released 2 years ago, it would have been a solid effort. Coming at the tail end of a year that saw the EU squeezed between the world's two largest economies, the text doesn't live up to the moment. My take for @gmfus.bsky.social www.gmfus.org/news/too-lit...

🇨🇳🇪🇺 In this month's 'Watching China in Europe' newsletter, GMF's Noah Barkin delves into three possible futures for Europe's economic relationship with China, the European Commission's economic security doctrine, Macron's trip to China, and the fast-evolving China debate in Berlin.

A big day for EU-China legislation: the commission will unveil its economic security doctrine and ReSource EU - two proposals designed to put the turbo-boosters on de-risking from China, which has been so far sluggish and piecemeal A bit of background...

Breaking: the EU has formally terminated its WTO case against China over the coercion of Lithuania This blockbuster case came after Lithuania opened a controversially named Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius

On Tuesday, GMF co-hosted an event on Unpacking China and Russia’s Strategies of Covert Influence in Brussels with YPFP Brussels.

Critically insecure critical infrastructure: 13 of 19 antenna sites in vicinity of today‘s Franco-German European Digital Sovereignty Summit in Berlin are equipped with Huawei technology. www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/...

Statement from German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil before his departure for China ticks the right boxes: ✅ Rare earths ✅ Overcapacities ✅ Russia/Ukraine But dialogue with China has not led to “solutions” as he states here for years. So Germany should be clear-eyed on what that can deliver

Diplomatically unprecedented. The German far-right opposition has reportedly been invited to Washington for an official strategy session with Republicans in the US Congress.

The EU just released its European Democracy Shield. The establishment of the European Centre for Democratic Resilience is a solid step toward coordinating FIMI response across Member States and building collective analytical capabilities. @ec.europa.eu ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Unusually candid statement from VW on Nexperia: “How quickly and sustainably this system functions depends primarily on the stability of relations between the US and China,” Ralf Brandstatter, CEO of Volkswagen Group China www.scmp.com/economy/chin...

The European Commission is exploring ways to force European Union member states to phase out Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. from their telecommunications networks

Exporting MAGA "The Heritage Foundation goes from MAGA to MEGA - Make Europe Great Again" www.politico.eu/article/the-...

🇺🇸🇭🇺 The balance of the #Trump-#Orbán meeting is more nuanced than the hype around securing sanction exemptions for #Hungary’s oil imports from #Russia. Check out my piece written for @euobserver.com, summarized in the THREAD below. euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

EU plans hub to tackle disinformation threat from Russia and others Move follows ‘escalating hybrid attacks’ by Russia and other foreign powers spreading fake articles across social media www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

It hasn't received enough attention: China's rare earth controls pose a serious threat to Europe's military build-up and its ability to defend itself against Russian aggression. The threat to European security stems from Beijing as well as Moscow. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/b...

Huge Nexperia news The Netherlands is prepared to suspend a ministerial order that gave it control over Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia if chip shipments resume in the coming days

💥Explosive new statement from Nexperia Netherlands overnight - can't guarantee the IP, tech, authenticity and quality standards for products delivered from Nexperia China as of Oct 13 - refutes rumours that Chinese CEO Zhang Xuetong is back www.nexperia.com/abo...

Putin’s repressive machinery turns inward to target pro-war figures. Analysts say a purge of the Russian regime’s own supporters is under way as rival factions turn on each other. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...