Humphrey Hawksley is a former BBC China Bureau Chief. An expanded and revised edition of his latest book "Asian Waters; The Struggle Over the Indo-Pacific and the Challenge to American Power" is published in this month.
With its unusually blunt warning to China, accusing it of exploiting COVID-19 to undermine European democracy, the EU has shown a long overdue change of mindset after years of jumbled, divisive and largely reactive policies in dealing with Beijing.