Empowering China

During his first trip to China in February 1972, President Nixon wrote in his diary: "We will one day be confronted, if our relations turn sour, with the most formidable enemy that has ever existed in the world." Despite this prescient observation, Nixon prioritized pressing short-term objectives: extracting the United States from the Vietnam War—crucial for securing his reelection—and counterbalancing the Soviet Union. Reflecting on Nixon’s foresight, Eugenio Bregolat questions the long-term wisdom of his opening to China. He examines the policies of Nixon’s successors, including President Clinton’s pivotal decision to support China’s admission into the World Trade Organization. Without American assistance, Bregolat argues, China’s rise would have been far less meteoric Bregolat also critiques the dysfunctions of the American political system and, drawing on his extensive experience, offers fresh insights into the evolving dynamics of China, Russia, and the global order. In the epilogue, he presents a European perspective on the balance of power between China and the United States and explores the future of Europe. He contends that for the European Union to emerge as a true global power, it must achieve political unity. One by one, even the largest European nations will remain minor players on the world stage. For Europe, he asserts, this is the existential question: to be or not to be. The book features a foreword by Javier Solana, former Secretary General of NATO and the first High Representative for the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy. Eugenio Bregolat, a retired Spanish diplomat, brings unparalleled expertise to these topics. Over 26 years, he served as Spanish Ambassador to China on three separate occasions, as well as to Russia. He also led the International Department for two Spanish Prime Ministers. Bregolat is the author of “The Second Chinese Revolution” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).