Perhaps it's better to actually ask some hard hitting questions about fairness between US-EU trade relations (and admittedly since I am an American, it seems a bit unfair that the EU gets to essentially freeload on US defense in the western hemisphere and we get some stiff tariffs in return). So it seems perfectly reasonable, and probably a good thing, that France and Germany are creating an independent defense pact.
>If there's one thing I'm sure of is that China won't share their spying data with my own government ;P
And? Consider for a moment that sharing of this data between defense partners actually provides a useful signal of mutual capabilities and for what's being collected.
I'd be totally open to arguments that we see a negative ROI on this, but I dont think it's necessarily fair to say that we don't get anything out of it.
One would expect that this power would be used to enrich America. This isn't what's happening, so I'm frankly willing to part with the whole deal.
They'll just share it with their allies; Chinese-state hackers, Russia, Iran, and North Korea so you'll have blackhats after you instead of your government.
Out of the frying pan into the fire.
Remember, people of Italy are currently being helped by Chinese doctors while US president ignores and belittles the problem.
The talks between France and Germany about creating an independent defense pact also reflect the complete lack of trust into what NATO has become. So much was lost in so few years.
And that also ignores all the nasty surveillance stuff they've been doing these last few years - where the Five Eyes pact was used to surveil our own citizens by our own government by piping data through US. If there's one thing I'm sure of is that China won't share their spying data with my own government ;P