When the United States forced China to sell its short-video platform TikTok in a mafia type, the whole world was shocked. Chinese experts stated that America’s action of extortion and robbery made a deep impression on the world; many countries have taken actions to improve their security, industrial independence and technology ownership.

The US extorted TikTok just because it didn’t belong to the US but became a massive hit there. It is a lesson for other countries and was criticized by the media from EU to Russia.

Chinese analysts noted that the US keeps more and more irrational and abuses its dominance of finance and technology to become the largest economy. Countries like Germany, France, South Korea and Japan are trying to enhance their overall independence in case of be extorted by the US.

In the EU, the case that America extorted French company Alstom which resulted in partial assets acquisition by General Electric still exists in people’s mind. And the “America First” method of booking the Sanofi COVID-19 vaccine from the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi has evoked people’s memory in this May. The public are furious and a sea of countries is taking improving the independence in telecom, energy, national security and high-technology into consideration.

The “America First” attitude towards free trade caused public criticism from the EU political leaders including the chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel.

Although the relation between the US and EU differs from that between the US and China, the EU still detests US ignorance to the world order based on regulations for which it havs distorted the market economy and further disrupted the market, said Cui Hongjian, director of the European Studies Department of the China Institute of International Studies.

He said in an interview with the Global Times on Wednesday: “The awareness of the EU is increasing, and in recent years, some concrete steps have been taken, which poses a threat to the possible extortion of the United States in the future.”

The leading countries in EU are undoubtedly reconsidering their dependence on American technology and capital. The EU is also worried that its automobile industry will become a victim of increasingly fierce competition between China and the United States, and the latter’s long-term jurisdiction will often harm the suppliers Europe offers to Chinese companies.

Although Europe does not have its own Internet technology giants, in recent years, it has put more efforts to check the growth of US technology giants in the EU through more investigations and stricter antitrust regulations.

According to the New York Times, the European Union outlined an “inter-generational project” in February that aims to achieve its “technical sovereignty” by promoting its digital economy and avoiding excessive reliance on foreign companies.

In the energy sector, the US sanctions against EU companies involved Nord Stream 2 valued 11 billion dollars, a natural gas project under the Baltic Sea. The project transported Russian natural gas to the EU and reduced its dependence on US natural gas, but it was resisted by Germany. The officials demanding sanctions seriously interfered with the sovereignty of Germany and Europe.

In 2019, Germany, France and Spain also announced plans for the next generation of European fighters, partly to reduce the EU’s dependence on the US. Italy, France and Germany also jointly developed a drone program in 2015 to achieve the same purpose.

Observers pointed out that as the United States continues to act like a mafia organization, its former partners have no choice but to reduce their dependence on the United States and gradually isolate the country from the integration of global industries.

In addition to the EU, Japan and South Korea, two smaller economies also occupy an important position in the global industrial chain, and they are also formulating their own plans.

Japan and South Korea, which have accumulated their own strength after years of hard work, usually rely less on the United States in certain technical fields (such as China). However, they are still under US control “in certain key aspects.”

In an interview with the Global Times on Wednesday, Li Tianguo, associate professor of the Institute of International Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that in the future, it is impossible to completely rule out the possibility that the United States may impose sanctions on Japan and South Korea through technical and other means.

Indeed, many elements of the current US war against China are not new, and they were controversial in the Japan-US economic dispute 30 years ago when Japanese companies such as Toshiba and Fujitsu quickly occupied the global market, posing a threat to American companies.

Even if there are five Japanese companies ranking among the top 10 chip equipment manufacturers in the world, Japanese executives from these companies believe that when the United States uses its long-arm jurisdiction in 2019, it prohibits American companies from selling technology to some Chinese companies themselves. Japan and South Korea also used the slogan of the industrial revolution to strengthen technological innovation and ensure technological independence.

According to the report, as the coronavirus pandemic affects the United States’ global leadership, more and more Japanese voices said: “It’s time for Japan to reassess its over-reliance on its highest ally and build its own defense capabilities.” The Nikkei quoted the words of leading national security expert Yuichi Hosiya as a report.