Right on cue, European idiots gift wrap another escalation step for China for free.
China can rightly point to this interview as clear evidence of the Dutch having not learnt their lesson and showing zero contrition, so the punishment needs to be increased.
It’s kinda surreal that China is tapping the breaks as it doesn’t want to curbstomp EU manufacturing so hard so early, but the Dutch are strapping on banzai headbands and daring China to do it.
IMO many people are missing China's grand strategy. If people understand where Xi is coming from, all the moves China has made in the past few years would make sense.
1) It starts with China's assessment that the West is declining and China is rising. To "win", China just has to maintain the current trajectory and outlast the West.
2) The current trajectory will inevitably cause some hardship in the West and lead to push back. As such, China needs to be prepared for a full-scale, full-spectrum (financial, industrial, military, informational, everything) conflict against the entire West (that's the US and all its allies). This is not so that it has to fight and win one, but to prevent a full scale conflict in the first place. Think of it like a MAD.
3) To accomplish this, China has worked to ensure full-spectrum resilience. RMB internationalization, CIPS, popping RE bubble, BRI, tech indigenization, preventing outsourcing of "older" industries, military/nuclear build out, GFW, etc. all needs to be looked at in this lens rather than the narrow lens of economic or territorial gains.
4) The key to victory is point number 1, i.e. maintaining the current trajectory. If an actual full-scale conflict breaks out, victory is no longer assured and there's a high likelihood of there being no victors at all. As such, the response to all provocations in general is to demonstrate the ability for MAD and nudge all parties involved to maintain the status quo.
Use these points to guide your analyses and everything will make more sense. Why doesn't China just nip the European manufacturing right now? Because it's well on track to nip itself. They're not gonna find an alternative to Nexperia China in weeks or months or in all likelihood ever before the European auto industry go bust from a general lack of competitiveness. China just needs to demonstrate that it can cause the destruction now, and let the Europeans pressure each other so the day of their destruction can come later rather than sooner. Sowing disunity is more important than causing short term destruction. One leads to a hastening of the current trends which favor China, the other can lead to a full scale conflict for which history has proven there are always many unknowns.
