11.04.2023
In an interview during his visit to China, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the EU to implement its strategic autonomy and should not get involved in the Sino-US conflict because of Taiwan. He also said that the EU can become a “third pole” alongside China and the US. The German-language media has set off a wave of criticism of Macron.
(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) On the flight from Beijing to Guangzhou, the French president accepted a joint interview with the French newspaper Les Echos and Politico, saying that “the worst situation is that Europe becomes a follower on the Taiwan issue.” , “influenced by the US political agenda and China’s overreaction”. He also said that the “great risk” facing Europe is to fall into “a crisis that is not ours” and that the EU might become a “third pole” alongside China and the United States.
Dividing the West in China
Berlin’s “Daily Mirror” wrote in an article that Macron may have been dazzled by Beijing’s grand reception and cheers, “but in Macron’s ‘strategic autonomy’ for Europe, that is, to play the role of the ‘first party” on par with the United States and China. There is indeed a fair share of megalomaniacs in the demands of the roles of the three superpowers. The French president said that Europeans should not appear as ‘retinues of the United States’ and that the China-Taiwan conflict is ‘not our crisis’, leaving Things got worse.”
The article said, “In China under authoritarian rule, Macron pushed to keep more distance from the United States, instead of calling on Europe to reduce its dependence on Putin’s ally China. It is far from making such a statement abroad, especially in China.” Much more than a diplomatic faux pas… Through his actions in China, Macron has divided and weakened the West.”
The author asks, “Does Macron, frustrated at home and already in the late autumn of political power, really think he can be considered an equal by Xi Jinping? What has he achieved in Beijing for his country, for Europe, for the West? For Ukraine What? What is Xi’s quid pro quo for Macron’s flattery?”
The author believes that Germany and Europe should learn the lesson of being too naive in dealing with Putin, “What is needed in the face of a dictator is a strong, confident and unified position of like-minded countries, even countries outside the EU and NATO. Biden managed to build such a coalition following the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Macron is now sowing doubts regarding it and stabbing America in the back. This is for the West, for freedom and peace A serious political blow, but one that Xi Jinping and Putin like.”
foreign policy bankruptcy
A signed article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung entitled “Misjudgment of Reality” believes that “Macron did not put forward a wise strategic concept in the interview, but instead created a full-scale disaster.”
The article reads: “Macron’s statement that Europe should become an independent force at an equal distance from the United States and China is not only uncoordinated with other EU governments, but also an attack on European unity and transatlantic unity. Lew’s stupidest and dustiest argument – that Europeans must free themselves from the so-called eternal American paternalism. His interview drove a wedge in the relationship between Europe and the United States, and at the same time tore the whole of Europe.”
The article analyzed that “the French president ignored the fact that a very large number of EU countries, first of all Eastern European countries, have no interest in this kind of ‘liberation’. They believe that the so-called American yoke is a guarantee of their security and sovereignty. Anti- Americanism does not unite Europe, it divides it. Strong ties to the US are a prerequisite for European strength, not an obstacle – and Macron’s rhetoric is undermining his own goals.”
The article pointed out that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has consolidated this situation,Washington-led NATO once diagnosed as ‘brain dead’ by Macron’s ‘misjudgment of reality’Now united and just accepted a new member. “Ukraine would cease to exist as an independent state without US arms supplies. When a French president solemnly claims that the US is dragging Europe into an Asian conflict ‘not ours’, US taxpayers are using It’s almost embarrassing that tens of billions of dollars are funding Ukraine’s defensive struggle…Even before his visit to Beijing, Macron was already considered a president who had failed at home. Now, he also announced his foreign policy commitments bankruptcy.”
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