瑞典記者悠野(Jojje Olsson)近日透過X發文,曬出一張「Made in Taiwan」的企業,只見台灣一座小島上,從北到南都有著各種大企業,除了有「護國神山」台積電外,還有著ASUS(華碩)、UMC(聯電)、MEDIATEK(聯發科)、REALTEK(瑞昱)、Quanta Computer(廣達電腦)、MiTAC(神達)、Synology(群暉)、CyberLink(訊連)、Foxconn(鴻海)、acer(宏碁)、GIGABYTE(技嘉)、nanya(南亞科技)、ADATA(威剛)、wiwynn(緯穎)、RITEK(錸德)等國際知名企業。
Trump's new world order has become real and Europe is having to adjust fast
Downtown
Munich is best-known for chic shops and flashy fast cars but right now
its streets are bedecked with posters advertising next generation
drones.
"Europe's
security under construction" boasts the slogan on an eye-catching set
of sleek black-and-white photographs, festooned across a
scaffolding-clad church on one of this town's best known pedestrian
boulevards.
Such
an unapologetic public display of military muscle would have been
unimaginable here just a few years ago, but the world outside Germany is
changing fast, and taking this country with it.
The southern region of Bavaria has become Germany's leading defence technology hub, focusing on AI, drones and aerospace.
Advertisements such as these that say "Europe's security under construction" would have been unthinkable in Germany not long ago
People
here, like most other Europeans, say they feel increasingly exposed -
squeezed between an expansionist Russia and an economically aggressive
China to the east, and an increasingly unpredictable, former best pal,
the United States, to the west.
According to a recent Eurobarometer poll, more than two-thirds of Europeans (68%) feel their country is under threat.
This
autumn, Germany's Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster
Assistance warned for the first time since the Cold War that war is no
longer "unlikely". While emphasising that this is a safe country, it
also recommends that Germans keep food supplies to last three to ten
days at home. Just in case.
Germany
is the number one single donor of military and other aid to Ukraine,
now that the US has halted any new direct aid. Opinion polls suggest
voters here want to feel better protected at home too.
Germany is now the single biggest giver of aid to Ukraine
The
question for this country, along with others in Europe is whether
traditional alliances with the US, in Nato and the EU can suffice, or
whether they should be diversifying into ad-hoc coalitions alongside
other like-minded nations such as Australia, South Korea and Japan?
Precarious relations
By
2029, the German defence budget will be higher than the UK and French
equivalents combined, Nato's Secretary General Mark Rutte pointed out to
me.
He described the €150bn they say they will spend on defence as "a staggering amount".
It's
something the United States notices and appreciates, he said. Donald
Trump is far from the first US president to insist that Europe do more
for its own security, though his tone has been noticeably more
threatening than that of his predecessors.
The
precarious state of transatlantic relations was the main focus of the
Munich Security Conference (MSC) this weekend. It's the world's biggest
annual defence meeting, bringing leaders, security experts and defence
industries together.
Mark Rutte (pictured speaking to Katya Adler), described the E150bn Germany will spend on defence "a staggering amount"
While
it's easy to dismiss speech-heavy get-togethers like this as wind-baggy
talking shops, in the turbulent times we live in, they can make a
difference - especially the informal private huddles between global
decision makers, far away from the glare of the cameras.
The
most eagerly - and for some the most anxiously - anticipated speech at
this year's conference was that of the US Secretary of State, Marco
Rubio, who represented the Trump administration here.
European
leaders and top diplomats were seriously on the edge of their seats.
But why was a simple 30-minute address given so much importance?
It's
because Europe-US relations have never been so frayed as they are now,
over the last 80 years since World War Two. And this isn't a bust-up
between buddies that will easily blow over.
Denmark still furious
In
the just over 12 months since Trump returned to the White House, he has
at times insulted and undermined European leaders, slapped big tariffs
on their exports, and most shockingly of all to his allies in Nato,
threatened Danish sovereignty over its territory, Greenland, refusing
for a while to rule out taking the island by force.
Speaking
at the MSC on Saturday, Denmark's still clearly furious prime minister,
Mette Frederiksen, said Trump's designs on Greenland remained "the
same" despite ongoing trilateral talks between representatives of
Greenland, the US and Denmark.
Trump
has ruled out taking Greenland by military force for now, and he's
backed away (for the moment, at least) from slapping economic sanctions
on allies, including the UK, France and Germany, that were getting in
the way of the US acquiring the Arctic island. But transatlantic trust
was severely damaged.
European
powers see in Trump a truly transactional president who thinks nothing
of leveraging security or economic relations with his closest allies to
get what he wants. Just before being re-elected president, for example,
he told Europeans that the US would not protect nations that didn't pay
their way on defence.
It
is true though, that Europe has been coasting on America's security
blanket for decades. Critics in the US argue that European nations have
been able to run generous welfare states for decades while Washington
picked up the tab for security spending.
AFP via Getty Images
The speech by US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio (left) was the most eagerly anticipated at the conference
Germany's
defence minister, Boris Pistorius, told me on Saturday: "We got used to
the strong support from the US; we got used to our comfort zone in
which we used to live. This time is over, definitely over," he said.
"Washington was right."
But
the crisis over Greenland and other actions by the Trump administration
- such as when it temporarily paused intelligence-sharing with
Ukrainian forces last March, leaving them blind on the battlefield, in
order to pressure Kyiv into engaging in peace talks with Moscow - have
left deep scars and a troubling sense of transatlantic wariness.
Hence the trepidation in Munich before Rubio took the stage.
In
the end, his words were laced with a sense of historic kinship. "We
want Europe to be strong," he said. "The two great wars of the last
century serve for us as a constant reminder that ultimately our destiny
is, and will always be, intertwined with yours."
I
found it telling that so many leading European figures in the audience
jumped on the warmth of his words, rising to their feet to applaud the
US Secretary of State. They were clearly relieved he hadn't threatened
or berated Europe as the US Vice President JD Vance famously did at last
year's MSC.
But
for those listening closely, Rubio's speech was loyal to themes close
to the heart of the Trump administration and hard for many European
leaders to swallow: anti climate action, sceptical of globalisation,
multilateralism, migration and pro the building of a new era of
Christian western civilisation.
Rubio
was clear: the US wasn't interested in allies clinging to the old
status quo. It wanted to forge a new path, ideally alongside Europe, but
only if it shared the same values.
This US offer of close partnership was conditional and absent of a sense of compromise.
"A
bit like a (psychologically) abusive partner," said one European
diplomat, speaking candidly on condition of anonymity. "He reminded
Europe how wonderful the (transatlantic) relationship used to be, but he
then switched to coercion: If you want things to be good between us in
the future, you have to do as I say!"
Another
diplomat pointed out that, while talking of shared values, it was
telling, he said, that of all the European countries that Rubio could
have gone to after making his speech in Germany, he chose to visit
Slovakia and Hungary before heading back to the US.
They
are viewed by Brussels as two of the EU's most problematic members,
both with Eurosceptic nationalist prime ministers who oppose sending
military aid to Ukraine and who are tough on migration.
A fragile new relationship
Rubio's
softer tone also divided European leaders who had recently spoken as
one, in defence of Denmark, at the height of the Greenland crisis last
month.
The
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, underlined a
now fragile relationship with the US, despite Rubio's gentler rhetoric.
"Some lines have been crossed that cannot be uncrossed anymore," she
said. "Europeans have suffered shock therapy."
But
will some countries in Europe grasp what warmness there was in Rubio's
speech as an excuse not to rush to boost defence spending as promised?
The coffers of most European governments are over stretched already and
their voters tend to prioritise cost-of-living concerns over defence
budgets.
"Some
lines have been crossed that cannot be uncrossed anymore," according to
the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen
Rachel Ellehuus, Director-General of defence think-tank RUSI told me she sees a rift opening up across the continent.
On
the one hand, you have the Nordic and Baltic nations that are
geographically close to Russia, and also Germany and the Netherlands,
which are all big defence spenders, she says, whereas in southern
Europe, there's Spain, for example, that is absolutely unapologetic
about refusing to increase defence budgets to the levels demanded by
Donald Trump.
France
and Britain are both verbally committed to boosting defence spending,
says Ellehuus, but are still looking for a "political band aid" to help
them explain to voters the trade-offs that will involve - higher taxes,
less welfare or more borrowing.
"Europeans
need to get to work yesterday and to focus," she says. "They have 5-10
years to stand on their own two feet in terms of conventional defence
capabilities."
Last
week, U.S. Undersecretary of Defence Elbridge Colby couldn't have been
more stark in his messaging at a meeting of Nato defence ministers he
attended in Brussels: Europe was no longer a US priority, the
Indo-Pacific was.
"Under
President Trump's leadership, we are reprioritising the defence of our
homeland and the protection of our interests in our Hemisphere," he
said.
While
he emphasised that the US remained committed to Nato's mutual defence
clause, where an attack against one member is viewed as an attack
against all, Colby insisted the US would be reducing its capabilities in
Europe, becoming "a more limited and focused" presence.
Europe
had to become a partner, rather than a dependent, he said, calling for a
new "Nato 3.0". The old world order with the West at its core, has
faded but the MSC this weekend made clear that what comes next for
Europe and the US is still very much up in the air.
Marco
Rubio called for a new century of western civilisation, Elbridge Colby
wants a re-vamped Nato, while the UK's prime minister appealed in Munich
for the western alliance to be re-made.
Starmer's nuanced approach
In
stark contrast to Marco Rubio's insistence on greater national
sovereignty, Sir Keir Starmer spoke in favour of greater integration
between the UK and Europe on defence - to cut re-armament costs, though,
he emphasised this did not mean the UK turning its back on the United
States.
Sophia
Gaston, national security expert at Kings College London, told me that
in Munich, Starmer was able to better articulate the nuance of Britain's
strategic outlook.
"Other
allies in Europe may be more willing to speak of divergence from
Washington", she says, "but for Britain it remains a strategic
imperative to triangulate within the Transatlantic relationship. There
will also be times when Britain will have to make hard choices, and
Starmer appeared more confident in confronting that reality.
"The
key is to have a really strong grasp of the national interest and our
instruments of power and influence. This requires a much more
competitive approach that has not always felt natural to Britain, which
has typically pursued much of its diplomacy in elegant,
consensus-focused and invisible ways."
Keir Starmer spoke in favour of greater integration between the UK and Europe on defence
In
these fast-moving, unpredictable times, Europe's leaders are
increasingly turning to a la carte coalitions, alongside traditional
organisations like Nato or the EU, which are larger and therefore often
slower to react. These groupings also include non-European nations.
Take,
for example, the so-called Coalition of the Willing group of countries,
led by the UK and France and formed to secure Ukrainian sovereignty in
the case of an eventual peace deal with Russia. Turkey has attended
coalition meetings, as have New Zealand and Australia.
Canada
is increasingly working alongside Nordic and Baltic nations that share
geopolitical challenges and common values, they say, and want to promote
stability and deterrence from the edges of the Baltic Sea, through the
Nordic and Baltic states, through the North Atlantic, Greenland and
across the Canadian arctic.
One
European policy-maker who asked not to be named joked to me that Canada
was becoming "more and more European by the day". Japan and South Korea
were increasingly seen as part of the "like-minded family" too, he
said.
Not just defence
These
ad hoc coalitions are not restricted to defence alone. France's
President Macron has long called for Europe to increase what he calls
its strategic autonomy, in traditional security terms but also energy
security, supply chains and new technologies. In Munich he recommended
Europe "de-risk" from all outside powers.
This
weekend even saw the president of the European Commission admitting
that if the EU failed to move fast enough on improving competitiveness,
"a group of its member states would have to move forward alone".
Attempts
by smaller pockets of European powers to work together to advance
European strategic independence are by no means always successful. Take
the current row between France and Germany over their joint attempt to
come up with the next generation of fighter jet with the Future Combat
Air System (FCAS).
You
could also say that for all the talk of building European independence,
this weekend's conference was also a reminder of just how dependent
Europe remains on US security support - from its nuclear umbrella to
intelligence sharing and command and control structures. It was also a
reminder of how far Europe trails the US in high tech innovation.
But
more than short-term mechanisms designed to 'survive' Donald Trump, the
changes we are witnessing in Europe, including closer alliances outside
the continent, are liable to be longer lasting. The world now seems to
dance to the tune of big power politics. And even slow-moving Europe is
having to adapt.
US monthly imports from Taiwan surpass goods from China
U.S. December imports from Taiwan surpass Beijing as shipments plunge 44%
For the first time in decades, the United States imported more goods from Taiwan than from China, as President Donald Trump’s tariffs reshape trade flows.
US purchases of goods from China plunged almost 44% in December from a year earlier to $21.1 billion, Commerce Department data showed Thursday. By contrast, shipments from Taiwan more than doubled during the same period to $24.7 billion.
The deficit with China decreased $93.4 billion to $202.1 billion in 2025. Exports decreased $36.9 billion to $106.3 billion and imports decreased $130.4 billion to $308.4 billion.
The deficit with Taiwan meanwhile, increased $73.0 billion to $146.8 billion in 2025. Exports increased $12.1 billion to $54.7 billion and imports increased $85.2 billion to $201.4 billion.
Overall, U.S. trade deficit continued to widen in December after hitting the smallest monthly amount since the 2009 low in October.
2月6日,在新加坡航展中國航空展區,美國國防承包商安杜里爾工業(Anduril
Industries)創辦人拉奇在參觀中航工業(AVIC)展位時,被拍到對著中共最新型隱形戰機「殲-35A」的模型拿出捲尺測量。他隨後在X平台上發文表示,他不相信這架飛機能名副其實(Not
convinced China’s J-35 measures up to the real deal)。
An ex-business owner who turned private trader applying technical analysis to trade major FX pairs and indies, commodities and KL futures. He used to write a weekly column in a Chinese daily on local futures markets. A self confessed stern supporter of the Far Right and nothing apologetically about it.
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