A new analysis published by the digital news platform Brussels Signal describes China not as a conventional competitor but as a 'predatory power' that has 'mastered the art of winning' without resorting to direct military confrontation — exploiting decades of Western complacency to steadily absorb the industrial base that once anchored the global order.

The Core Argument

The analysis, authored by Konstantinos Bogdanos, a Greek politician and journalist, argues that while Western nations spent the post-Cold War era prioritising globalisation and liberal reform, Beijing quietly engineered one of history's most consequential economic transfers — drawing the manufacturing heartland of the West into its own economy.

According to Bogdanos, Chinese President Xi Jinping does not actively seek the weakening of the West as a strategic objective. Rather, he reportedly watches it unfold as an organic consequence of structural choices made in Washington, Brussels, and other Western capitals over several decades.

Trump vs Xi: Two Strategic Worldviews

Bogdanos draws a sharp contrast between the two leaders at the centre of global geopolitics. US President Donald Trump, he writes, 'views geopolitics as a series of tactical deals and immediate shows of force — a true disciple of Thucydides, believing that the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.'

Xi, by contrast, is characterised as the 'quiet emperor, who thinks in centuries, playing a game that is far more patient and lethal.' The piece invokes an ancient Eastern proverb — often misattributed to Sun Tzu — to capture Beijing's posture: 'If you sit by the river long enough, you will eventually see the bodies of your enemies float by.'

Bogdanos argues that China is 'not in a rush to go to war' but is instead 'waiting for the West to drown in its own decadence, its own debt, and its own ideological civil wars.'

On Trump's Beijing Visit and Personal Diplomacy

The report frames Trump's engagement with Xi Jinping as an attempt to navigate a turbulent bilateral relationship through personal diplomacy and economic pressure, driven by the belief that China only responds to strength. However, Bogdanos is sceptical of the outcomes, arguing that even a trade deal or a temporary truce on Taiwan would not reverse Beijing's long-term trajectory.

'China's global expansionism — its bid to control European trade routes and African mines — is not a series of arbitrary business moves. It is the steady construction of a world where the West becomes a historical relic,' he writes.

Europe's Strategic Blind Spot

The analysis reserves pointed criticism for the European Union, arguing that Brussels has responded to China's industrial and technological encroachment with 'strategic autonomy memos that nobody reads.' Meanwhile, Bogdanos contends, Beijing has ensured that the supply chain for critical green technologies — from solar panels to electric vehicle batteries — runs through entities controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

He also cites the Covid-19 pandemic and China's social credit system as evidence of Beijing's vision for a future global order — one he describes as 'a world without the individual, a world where the state is the only god.'

Broader Context and What It Means

The report lands at a moment of acute tension in US-China relations, with trade tariffs, technology restrictions, and competing influence campaigns across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe all intensifying simultaneously. Critics of this framing, however, argue that characterising China solely as a predatory actor risks foreclosing diplomatic options and overstates Western passivity. The debate over how to categorise — and respond to — Beijing's rise remains one of the defining strategic questions of the decade.

How Western policymakers, particularly in Brussels and Washington, respond to the dependency risks outlined in the report will likely shape the contours of the next phase of great-power competition.