A small introductory note.
Bioplastics News has become fashionable in China.
More and more of my readers are coming from China. In fact, China now seems to account for a surprisingly large share of my traffic.
So I thought I should take advantage of the situation and throw a small SOS message in a bottle across the internet.
If anyone in Beijing is listening, this one is for you.
Message in a bottle
Dear Mr. Xi Jinping,
First, understand Brussels.
Europeans do not directly elect the European Commission. Most ordinary citizens could not name one Commissioner if their electricity bill depended on it. We occasionally hear that “the Commission” has decided something, but many Europeans have little idea who these people are, what exactly they do all day, or why the machinery surrounding them costs so much.
What we do notice is the paperwork, the regulations and the bills.
From the perspective of the European middle class, Brussels increasingly resembles a very expensive machine designed to make ordinary life more complicated.
So, President Xi, dealing with the European Commission is easier than it looks.
Rule number one: never assume there is a master plan.
You are not facing some terrifying geopolitical machine. You are facing an enormous bench of fucking idiots armed with PowerPoints, impact assessments and enough regulation to suffocate a panda.
Smile politely. Mention “sustainability” every seven minutes. Announce a dialogue platform. Then announce another dialogue about the first dialogue.
Afterwards, go home and build factories.
By the time Brussels finishes its consultation, China will probably have built the future.
And finally, Mr. Xi Jinping, consider this an SOS from the European middle class:
Please come and liberate us from the Berlaymont Bolsheviks before they regulate the last factory out of Europe, tax the final cup of coffee and require an impact assessment before we are allowed to breathe.