The aroma of Chinese phish and Nvidia chips has overwhelmed the sole fillets swaddled in truffle crust at La Truffe Noire, the celebrated expense-account eatery of choice for European Union officials and their lobbyist pals from the People's Republic.
"Americans have completely vanished from the menu," rues a former headwaiter, who's served Europe's political power-lunchers since before the EU became official in 1993. "It's a shame. Americans always leave an extra gratuity when they don't have to."
Pass the buck, please. Sit anywhere, but no quotes; the Europeans are irritable. The Chinese, savoring the success of their DeepSeek AI brain over more expensive American models such as OpenAI and Anthropic, might even give a fellow an unofficial message for President Donald Trump.
Flash a smile and, if you're a dual national, slap a European passport on the table, tell them you can operate in the 27-member EU and the U.S. without a visa, and the boys from Beijing will likely ask if you're interested in a new job.
"People love AI," Chinese Premier Li Qiang told the Europe's political elite at the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "But there are also surprises and fears in certain quarters."
So far, Trump appears to like nothing better than to heap opprobrium on Europe — despite the fact the U.S. is the biggest recipient of EU goods, accounting for nearly a fifth of the bloc's exports and a 2023 trade surplus of 70 billion euros in energy products.
"From the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very badly," Trump groused in his virtual address to the WEF. "We have some very big complaints with the EU."
Sure, everyone in Europe has a legitimate gripe with the EU. But veteran U.S. diplomats here — albeit panicky about Trump's vow to purge critics of MAGA-inspired foreign policy initiatives — insist the unsupervised tryst between the EU and China without Yanks in the room has left American interests vulnerable to the sort of hanky panky that often ends in feuds, intimidations and, ultimately, hostilities.
"The EU is currently, at best, a secondary player in the development of AI," says Niccolò Bianchini, head of studies at the Foundation Robert Schuman, The Research and Studies Center on Europe. "Far from being a surprise, this reflects the chronic slow progress of the European innovate sector."
And that's precisely why Europe and China are now entwined in a tango of innovation and collaboration. While Silicon Valley once held the reins of technological supremacy, Brussels and Beijing are now the contenders. Diplomats say the EU's strategic embrace of Chinese tech giants for joint ventures in artificial intelligence research has raised too few important eyebrows in Washington, where fears of losing ground in the race for AI dominance echo like distant thunder.
Over the past two years, venture capitalists have injected more than $155 billion into AI, according to the start-up tracker PitchBook. Two of the biggest AI outfits, OpenAI and Anthropic, have raised $24 billion and $16 billion. The Chinese launched a similar and competitive AI system designed to be as intelligent as humans for $6 million.
From Paris to Berlin, China's vast data reserves and cutting-edge algorithms has proven cheap and irresistible. Yet, in the shadows cast by these digital alliances, questions linger: What price will Europe pay for its dalliance with Beijing? Will data privacy become the collateral damage of this high-stakes romance? What's the cascade effect?
As some of the soon-to-be defenestrated diplos tell the story, the digital frontier looms even larger as the Chinese look southward to the Panama Canal – a strategic chokepoint where economic interests intersect with geopolitical maneuvering and yet untested AI realities.
To be sure, the People's Liberation Army is nowhere near the Canal Zone, but China's investments in Panama's infrastructure have redrawn the geopolitical map, transforming the isthmus into a linchpin of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative — a modern-day maritime Silk Road that stretches from the heartlands of Asia to the ports of Europe.
For the EU, eyeing enhanced trade routes and expanded market access, Panama beckons as a gateway to new opportunities. Yet, for America, the shifting dynamics pose a vexing question: Will the canal become a conduit for prosperity or a bottleneck of influence trail-bossed by Chinese AI models?
Amidst the frigid landscapes of Greenland, another act unfolds in this geopolitical melodrama — a tale of ice, minerals, and territorial ambitions. China's courtship of Greenland, with promises of investment in mining ventures and Arctic infrastructure, has resonated across Europe, where energy security and access to rare-earth minerals loom large.
As the ice sheets melt and reveal untapped riches beneath, Greenland emerges as a new theater of influence — a tableau where economic pragmatism collides with environmental stewardship.
And just who's going to choreograph the new frontier? China's DeepSeek or America's OpenAI ChatGPT?
For the moment, neither AI product has the answer. What concerns American diplomats, however, are signals that the Trump administration's nascent defense and diplomatic policies are based on tub-thumping gimmicks and flooding social media sites with political gibberish.
Not to worry. There's still a mighty appetite for American enthusiasm at La Truffe Noire. Might I suggest the 97-euro "Young Gastronomes" lunch, a four-course meal with three glasses of wine for anyone under 30. No need to show your identity card. The Europeans are happy to wink. And you don't need AI to tell you the Chinese will squirm.
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