> At the moment the war is already lost

the war against whom?

Let's make a thought exercise: Imagine Europe must, for some reason,s impose duties on anything from China. Like Europe says, 'Hey, you're burning too much coal, I will stop your cars with my tariffs.' China says, 'Okay, I will put duties on the parts, chips and batteries you're buying from me.' Now, Europe won't be able to produce any cars anymore. We've seen this already when COVID-19 stopped car production in the EU.

And chips are everywhere. Hence, the EU is dependent on China. Q.E.D.

Or maybe I am mistaken. Please tell me what you think regarding the above.

I was not challenging your conclusion, just not sure it's against China or the USA, both possible, right?

as for the thought exercise...

I have to say that the only way for the EU to be 'independent' is for it to be sanctioned by either China or the US.

For example, since 2000, China has attempted to develop its domestic chip industry with hundreds of billions of dollars, but this effort never materialized until chip sanctions were imposed under the Trump and Biden administrations

btw, i don't think this will come true:

> China says, 'Okay, I will put duties on the parts, chips and batteries you're buying from me.'

it's very unlikely that China will actively limit export for products, it harms more to China itself, it's more possible to limit export for resources like rare metals