China.org.cn, July 17, 2018
Transatlantic relations, or U.S.-European Union (EU) ties, are the most important bilateral relationship in the world. For the past seven decades after World War II, this relationship has gone through many ups and downs. As both the U.S. and the EU are major partners for China, a realistic judgment of its movement as well as its nature can have an important impact on the decision-making behind its foreign policy.
Brothers in battle
Soon after World War II, the U.S. wasted no time in rebuilding Western European economies by implementing the Marshal Plan. Officially known as the European Recovery Program, this plan was supported by the U.S. capital in the amount of $13 billion, nearly $110 billion in 2016 (adjusted for inflation). During the Cold War, the U.S. and its anti-communist European allies defeated the Soviet Union, leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and the subsequent disintegration of the first socialist country on December 25, 1991.
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