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2020 is the year in which the coronavirus hit mankind.
A pandemic might not have been prevented, but the poor information policy of the communist regime in Beijing has contributed to governments around the world reacting to the danger later and more half-heartedly than they would have been possible.
2020 was also the year in which China severely harassed Australia economically after Canberra dared to point out the Corona grievance.
2020 was the year Chinese oppression finished off Hong Kong's democracy.
2020 was the year in which the Chinese army already practiced in front of television cameras with tanks for the street fighting that awaits them in the forcible conquest of Taiwan.
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2020 was the year in which more and more gruesome details about the oppression of the Uighur minority became known.
And 2020, of all things, will probably be the year in which China is rewarded by the European Union at Christmas with a bilateral investment agreement.
The negotiations are apparently nearing completion, and the federal government in particular wants the deal before the end of the year.
China does not see global economic integration as a win-win business
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It was understandable that the negotiations were entered into in 2014: Investing companies want legal security, a valuable asset, especially when the target country has a dubious understanding of the rule of law and is also a very important sales market.
The opportunity to demonstrate unity was added as an argument in the meantime: After the bad experience with China's divide-and-rule strategy in the monstrous Silk Road project, one does not want to be divided again.
In the meantime, however, it has also become clear that no great power will grow up with China and that geopolitics and global economic integration are viewed as win-win business.
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Rather, the West and its values are in a systemic competition with China that no longer existed after the Cold War.
With Joe Biden in the White House, there is a chance that America and Europe will return to their community of values and develop a new level of defense against China, also and especially economically.
To conclude something like a separate peace quickly before the handover in Washington, as the EU is now doing, weakens Europe's negotiating position (the Chinese then have what they wanted from the EU).
And it sends the wrong signals in all directions: to the USA, you expose yourself as the insecure cantonist that you are.
China can feel empowered.
And potentates of all countries will know about the bigotry if the Europeans want to give them lessons in human rights and good governance at the next opportunity.
This is exactly what will be the main legacy of the current presidency, given the current situation.
The German Presidency.