What’s wrong with French President Emmanuel Macron? After his trip to China to convince his colleague Xi Jinping to reach peace in Ukraine, the French head of state he got annoyed their European and North American allies.
In another of his little phrases, which annoys the trade unionists who marched this Thursday against pension reform again across the country and ordinary French citizens, he has now suggested that Europe must avoid blindly following Washington in its growing confrontation with China over Taiwan.
After a three-day state visit to China, Macron exhibited his cherished ideal of strategic independence for the EU to become a “third pole” or bloc, separate from the United States and China, in an interview with Politico and French journalists, whom the Elysee then edited and censored in parts.
It seemed to imply that France it would be the first power in the block.
France is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the only nuclear power in the EU, with a large military capable of operating internationally. But critics have said Macron’s comments weakened deterrence against Chinese aggression AND it undermined US support in Europe after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
alien crisis
During his visit, Macron brokered lucrative trade deals for French companies and urged President Xi to “bring Russia to its senses” over Ukraine. Xi has said he supports peace talks between Kiev and Moscow, but has indicated he is unwilling to lean on the Kremlin.
Macron said the “biggest risk” Europe faces was being “trapped in crises that are not ours, that prevent us from building our strategic autonomy”. It is a theme that Macron has evoked several times. In 2019, with Donald Trump in the White House, Macron warned that Europe could no longer depend on the United States to defend its allies of NATO.
“The paradox would be that, overcome by panic, we believe it we are just US fansMacron said. “The question Europeans need to answer… Is it in our interest to accelerate a crisis in Taiwan? No. The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans should become followers of this problem e follow the example of the American agenda and an overreaction from China.”
He argued that if the United States and China started a conflict, “we would not have the time or means to finance our strategic autonomy and we would become vassals instead of a third pole”.
Macron’s visit coincided with talks between the Taiwanese president and the Speaker of the US House of Representatives in California last week. Angered by the meeting, China has launched military exercises off the coast of Taiwan, simulating an “encirclement” of the democratically ruled island.
Sources close to Macron said they were relieved that China waited until it left Chinese airspace before launching the exercise, seen by some as a test run for a possible invasion. China claims Taiwan as its territory, which the Taiwanese government refuses. The United States has promised to defend the island in case of attack.
Pierre Haski, one of the French journalists who interviewed Macron and a former China correspondent, tweeted: “Macron’s third way vis-à-vis China looks very fragile as Beijing simulates a siege on Taiwan.”
Censorship or editing?
Emmanuel Macron has sparked a dispute over censorship, by force the Politico website to remove comments “frank” on the strategic autonomy of Taiwan and Europe from an interview during his trip to China.
Politico was one of three media outlets who interviewed Macron on the presidential plane as it flew from Beijing to Guangzhou in southern China aboard France’s Air Force One.
Macron diplomacy
The French president has been criticized in the past for saying that Moscow shouldn’t be “humiliated” in any peace agreement with Ukraine. The French president believes that Europe should not let itself be dragged into “crises that are not his” of him.
As in 2019 with his sentence on NATO’s “brain death”, Emmanuel Macron has unleashed a storm among his allies on his return from China, who accuse him of having broken transatlantic solidarity.
Emmanuel Macron is playing in the Beijing game suggesting that France remains neutral and aloof in the scenario of a crisis in the Taiwan Strait,” commented Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS) specialist Antoine Bondaz.
These few sentences have aroused indignation in the Western world, where many recall that if the United States had not committed itself in Europe to defend Ukraine, Vladimir Putin would have he would have won the war.
They shook the French strategic circles, which remember that France has many interests in the region and that the Taiwan Strait is a major security concern for her in the Indo-Pacificthat you can’t ignore when the storm comes.
Emmanuel Macron’s conduct in China repeats his attempts against Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Before February 24, 2022, he tried to dissuade Vladimir Putin from intervening, then tried to reason with him, and finally believed he could push China away from Russia.
Now he would like to guide Xi Jinping on a “path of peace” in Ukraine, even if Beijing is using the dossier to attempt to weaken the United States and divide transatlantic partners.
From China to the Netherlands
A Macronian communication disaster, except of course for China, which was exultant: this is how Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to China ended.
It came from China and left for Holland. Macron cultivates a new ally to defend his reindustrialization plan for the Old Continent. Together with his wife Brigitte, he arrived for a two-day visit, where he was honored with a meal by Willem and Máxima, the kings of the Netherlands, and a seminar with Mark Rutte and seven members of the two countries’ respective governments.
The last state visit by a French president was Jacques Chirac in 2000.
Emmanuel Macron knows well Mark Rutte, dean of European leaders, re-elected three times since 2010, a centrist like him. The two men regularly go out to dinner to chat informally about current issues. Burp he made no secret of his recent disapproval of the amount of public expenditure dedicated by France (15% of GDP) to pensions.
“For a year, since the beginning of the war, positions have approached, in particular on what is called here “European sovereignty”, and in particular in its economic and industrial dimension”, they remarked in the presidential environment.
Post-Covid reindustrialization
Emmanuel Macron was due to participate this Wednesday in a roundtable with industry leaders on semiconductors and quantum technology, the developing technology of supercomputers, a change that Europe should not miss.
This move is expected to lead to a “pact for innovation and sustainable growth” between the two countries, a defense deal (although the Hague has opted to purchase US F-35 fighters) and a joint statement on ‘power.
As for nuclear power, which divides Europe, Holland says it is ready to develop new reactors in addition to renewables, perhaps an opportunity for France. “No one would have thought five years ago that we would have considered this,” they admit on the Dutch side.
But Macron was booed in The Hague speaking on Tuesday and again this Wednesday. Dutch police also arrested two protesters when they were running towards the French president in the immediate vicinity of the University of Amsterdam. The pension crisis in France haunts him.
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Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.