19.01.2026 How Trump is making China great again—and what it means for Europe

Summary

• Around the world, many people expect China’s—already considerable—global influence to grow over the next decade, and more now view Beijing as an ally or necessary partner.
• For much of the world, America is globally influential and will continue to matter, but few people expect it to gain in influence.
• In most countries, expectations of Trump are lower than 12 months ago. His first year back in power seems to have caused dramatic shifts of opinion in some places, including India and South Africa.
• In Russia, more people now see Europe as an adversary, while views of America have softened. In China, the EU is held to be a power player that strikes its own stances distinct from those of America.
• Europeans are the world’s chief pessimists. They lack faith in the EU’s ability to deal on equal terms with the US or China and worry about Russian aggression and nuclear weapons.
• European leaders should share greater honesty about where Europe stands in this post-Western, “China first” world in order to devise a successful strategy to navigate it.

Source: European Council On Foreign Relations
Article written by: Timothy Garton Ash, Ivan Krastev & Mark Leonard
You can find the full article here.