I am not sure if we are misunderstanding each other. I am not coping or saying that there should be no response.
What I am clarifying is that, the immediate, “I am going to bury you six feet under or the rabies infected Trump” style response is not the best course of action as it would involve the EU as a whole and therefore requires a more thorough and calculated response.
You don’t want to send a missile only for the primary target to escape with a few shallow cuts. If you are going to response then take them and everything else down with them. And in this case it’s need to investigated, calculated and decisive.
We don’t want to act prematurely and have the intended effect diminished. In this case go hard or go home, and if we are to go hard then make sure everything is torn down to the ground.
China has already broken the so-called unity of the EU with its targeted sanctions against Lithuanian. It does not need to take on the whole EU to retaliate against the Dutch.
The problem with the calculated approach is that it is slow and too measured to really register with the goldfish memory Anglo led west. That’s part of the reason why the Dutch are trying their luck now, after seeing the Italians and British ‘get away’ with similar moves in the past.
China needs to send a strong, unambiguous signal that there are drastic consequences to crossing China like this, else the Americans will push more EU countries to join in and then it really will be a fight against the whole EU. As make no mistake, this is a calculated American strategy to sleepwalk the EU into a full on trade war with China, so that they can then join forces with the EU against China.
That is why the dominos will keep falling, and each future provocation will be more sever and blatant.
The Dutch were chosen to make this highly aggressive move because is an open secret ASML have kill switches in all the Litho machines they sell around the world. So they think they are immunise from Chinese retaliation due to the threat from those kill switches.
That’s also why China’s response needs to be massively disproportionate, to show the Dutch and the Americans that it’s ready, willing and able to kill the ASML golden goose dead. That’s basically threatening MAD in advanced chip manufacturing and calling their bluff on the kill switches.
If the west actually uses those kill switches, then ASML and the rest of global advanced chip manufacturing ends. With top end chips extinct, the one who has legacy chips inherit the throne. And guess who makes the overwhelming majority of legacy chips in the world. Not to mention Chinese advanced chip making equipment will be available at scale in a matter of years to replace ASML machines, while there is zero prospects on the horizon of the west getting alternative sources of rare earths needed to get their chip making back on track.
This is the new perfect timing and target for China to retaliate in a big way, and to be honest, I think China has been saving its dramatic overreaction for just such a target. Because let’s be honest, Italy is basically just a holiday and luxury bag maker these days, and the UK is both outside the EU and a manufacturing minnow. China can erase both economies and the rest of the EU will barely notice. Not so with the Dutch. Take them out and it will impact whole EU and America directly and massively. Which is why both the EU and America will apply maximum pressure for the Dutch to cave and surrender even as they publicly give them full support. It’s just too small and silly of a piece to risk their own collective economic futures over.
America is the puppet master. So the retaliation needs to hurt America just as much, and ideally a lot more, than the puppet.
That’s the key to understanding and countering the Anglos. They are absolutely fine with fighting to the last Ukrainian/Italian/Dutch/German/whoever, just so long as they themselves are not impacted. If you threaten their own economic prosperity in response, you think they would balk at making their minions eat shit and back down when they are prepared to march them to their literal deaths before?
