At the verge of the biggest political chaos in European Union since its founding, I’d like to share a few of my viewpoints here. 

• Brexit shows Europe doesn’t know where it should be going, China does
• The discourse on integration on Europe and China is totally upside down
• There is still hope for Europe if start thinking and doing things differently

Following China for a decade

 
I got fascinated about China in January 2007 when the acclaimed theatre director, Juha Hurme introduced me and a bunch of our young excited Ylioppilasteatteri actors how he sees China – a different classical culture that proposes an idealist option to the weird direction that Europe and the West were taking. Got so excited that I studied in Turku East Asian Studies and Helsinki Confucius institutes with the top academics and specialists everything there can be learnt about China and East Asia. Then I wrote my MA Thesis about the encounters between China an the West. 

After trying to realized how we westerners see ourselves and China, I finally moved to China to study Chinese and live with the Asians, to learn myself how they themselves actually think about it. 

   

  Now almost a decade has gone being obsessed about the differences between China and the West and how we see each other, how we’ve lived together and what kind of potential for our cooperation exists. That is huge.

One thing though points out: we Westerners have mostly got China pretty much wrong. From the top class American academians, European pundits, and other torchbearers of our civilization, over and over Ive heard the same discourse: aswhere Europe is integrating, China is more and more collapsing apart – a disintegration process is on the move and any given moment China’s different regions start falling apart and leaving the union. Xinjiang, Tibet, and other parts are anytime leaving. People are protesting in the streets. Chinese communist party is shaking and has huge troubles of keeping the state together.

Simultaneously Europe is getting closer and integrating and becoming the unified center of Eurasia. European Union particularly is at the core of that development. 

For 10 years I have been following that debate and discourse, and for ten years I’ve it has been false from the start. The more you spend time in China, the stronger you’re feelings gets: China is constantly more and more integrating in different m levels of the society, Europe is ongoing a process of disintegration.

There are problems in both of those developments, but one thing is for sure: we really need to open our eyes and start thinking differently about our world. I don’t know what is this strange religion of “Europe is integrating” and where it comes from. I guess it’s a post-war half-idealistic, half-pacifist daydream that is based not only big dreams, but also of big fears. This religion takes fuel from the great colonial past of Europe and the white people at the core of the world civilization. Gobineau already told in the 19th century how White people should rule over the “masculine” Africans and the Asian “yellow’s”, who are incapable of ruling the world or even their own societies. Wilhelm II was a big fan of his. And his followers were seen in all levels of the society.

And then there’s the missionary religion: we should go all over the world to save other people and other souls and make them like the Children of the God. And as we are gods image, our example, our culture, our ways of life actually is the image of God. And that should be something that others should follow.

I guess we’ve come very far from those days, but somethings of the attitudes still exist in our ways of dealing with the world. We’re so obsessed of integrating and saving the world that we don’t anymore have any clue of what’s happening in our own backyard. Our worldview is based on naive idealism and we don’t see how the world has gone forward and past us.

Where are we Europe? 

At the eve of Britains exit from the European Union I think we should finally start waking up to the reality and leave the 20th and 19th centuries behind: Europe is at the process of disintegration, the Western world has massive challenges and unless we change our direction we have a big threat of becoming dumbed down pretty badly by the non-Western world. And it’s soon not about China or East Asia anymore. In the upcoming decades every other non-European and non-transatlantic region is rising and developing. Look at what’s happening Africa. The continent of “civil wars, poverty and chaos” is getting its act together. There’s a lot of development happening in so many local centers. In Indonesia, in Nigeria, in Mexico, Turkey… A few examples of the places by traditionally ignored of us white Europeans. 

I would also like to see an integration of our beautiful continent. Europe has such a rich culture such an amazing civilization and past – and a lot of things to contribute to the global world culture. There’s something so unique about Europe, in arts, in traditions, in history in lifestyle. Also in our thinking. Europe has for long been a crossroad of civilizations a central for cultural exchanges, of trade, of Eurasian and global encounters, of new thoughts and so much more. 
  
We have a lot of things to be proud of. 

But do we cherish our heritage? Do we even know what it is to be European? What is the thing that we are building when we are building the European community? What is it to be European? Where do we come from? What are our values? What do we believe in? What do we defend, what do we fight for? What do we cherish?

Where are we going?

I think the problem of Europe is not political, it’s neither economical, even though those things are often pointed out nowadays. I think political and economic challenges are just follow ups of even broader problem and that is civilizational. We don’t know who we are, we don’t know where we come from, why, and what is at the core of being European. Who can be European? Who can be part of this community? What are our values and rules and preferences? 

If we don’t know what we are or what we are aiming at or what we are supposed to be – how can we integrate anyone into our culture or societies? People and politicians talk about we should be more European. Id just like to ask, What the hell does that mean? Where are you asking us to join when you ask us to join the European community? What is that?
  
Is that just a club of Bunch of people who like to feel great of being somebody and leading something that is nearly not more than a bubble that can’t take any needles without without it bursting? Are you asking us to join the community of the people? Hell yeah, I guess everyone is happy about that. But no one is happy to join a vague collection of people who don’t know where they are leading the boat, who don’t have a clear vision, a clear direction or any message that would speak to the hearts of the people in Europe. If we truly knew where we are going, who we are and what we are building, I’m pretty sure the Europeans would come together, stick with each other and find the common good to help each other out. But that’s not the case. We are not willing to join a coalition that has no clear direction or doesn’t speak to our hearts. Europe is badly lead. That’s so sad. We need a vision, we need direction, we need somebody to remind us who we are, why we are doing this European integration. What is at the core of Europe – ask that question. Can you answer it?

No.

I tell you the Chinese leaders are showing and giving a clear direction. They are fighting for the great revival of the Chinese people. That is the biggest dream they could achieve. On the level of state, people and individuals. Strength, prosperity and individual happiness. On a grand scale it is called the Chinese Dream, Zhongguo Meng (中国梦). 
  
China also has a systematic 5 year plan, now ongoing is the 13th, or shisanwu，十三五, which is regarding the scale and huge challenges of 1,3 billion people’s area very well implemented. I can see how the country is changing in areas such as innovation and health. “健康中国”，Healthy China, “大众创业万众创新”，Entreneurship and Innovation, and “一带一路” One Belt One Road, on an international scale. The rhetorics meet clear step by step plans. Much of that is being implemented. 

Watch China’s 13th five-year plan in 3 minutes.

Hope for Europe

If China is able to somewhat answer to the questions who they are and where they are aiming to, are we? 

If not able to answer that question and tell that story to the European people, we are sinking.

In that case 28 individual stories of your heritage are better than 1 common.

If that’s the case it’s good that Brits exit the EU. But I hope it would be otherwise. I still hope Europe can get its act together, but it has to start from now. Economic narrative doesn’t work for people. How many great civilizations follow or have followed money rather than the heart? Culture rather than corruption. 

I have hope for Europe. I believe we can get our act together. I believe we can find our way. I believe we are able to answer the question who we are, where we come from and where we are going. To tackle our problems we first need to answer to the dilemma of our identity. Only then we are able to tackle our economic, political and other challenges, such as immigration that everybody talks about. But we need to find us as one people, together fighting for the better future. Are we able to do that now? If we don’t find a narrative that both David Cameron and Viktor Orban can rally for, I’m afraid that Brexit will be followed with a lot of other similar examples.

And simultaneously I believe that China will still not be disintegrated, no province will leave the Middle Kingdom, no big-scale questioning of the nation and its direction will be seen. 88% of the Chinese are happy of the direction of its country. I don’t wonder why. The country is not anymore about economic rhetoric, but also of finding, even yearning for the meaning for individual people and the nation. It seems like the whole China is marching towards a common dream. You don’t think China doesn’t have challenges? I think the challenges are must vast than the Europeans. I’d just hope Europe would be able to deal with its challenges with the same decidedness and vision that China is doing.

Good luck and all the best, I love you Europe and I believe the better days are ahead of us, but hopefully Brexit wakes us all up and we start doing the right things.

Meanwhile I’ll go walking in the streets of Hangzhou, where everybody’s expecting the upcoming G20, that brings the world leaders from Xi Jinping to Putin to Obama to Hangzhou. And luckily a few European leaders too.

By the way I haven’t used practically any cash or bank cards practically for 2 weeks now. Everything is paid by Alibaba’s Zhifu Bao (Alipay) or Wechat Pay. It’s all mobile here. He way how it’s made flexible and inclusive is just outstanding. Most of us acknowledge that in mobile business China is 1-2 years ahead of us. That’s not a secret. Sometimes I though think that even in governance and politics China seems to be more advanced than us.

Remember what the strategist Sunzi once said? 

Know yourself, know your opponent and you’re not in danger, not even in one hundred battles.
To me it looks like we know neither ourself, nor our opponents. And the more battles, internal and external, come, the more we may be in danger. 

Europe, let’s get our act together and regain the promise and our place in the world. It starts from taking care of ourselves, our backyard and asking the right questions based on a more realistic and honest account of where we are in the world in the start of the 21st century.

  

We have to know who we are, who we are not, and where we want to be. Otherwise more “Brexits” will follow, and we can’t stop it.

Lauri Tammi is an MA on global history and Chinese politics, Chinese Bridge 2014 winner and Slush China co-founder. He works currently in Hangzhou for IT company Avaintec, 念睿。