[netcan]

That's an EU problem, not a China problem really. The EU (we) never really formed a polity. A constitution people believe in, a democratic process people are engaged with. Without that, it's very hard to have a core of collective (political) values. So, whether it's EU members playing realpolitik and preferring powerful friends to moral high grounds, or some members drifting away from liberal democracy... the EU is not really equipped to do anything.

I've long thought that the EU has focused far too much on combining bureaucracy and too little on combining actual politics.

Now that we're facing political challenges, there is no EU polity to deal with it. If we're faced with any major political or military conflict, the members will fall on multiple sides and the EU will be split.