news France and EU to support China and abandon US

[Tropez]

Quote

Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on his plane back from a three-day state visit to China.

Speaking with POLITICO and two French journalists after spending around six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip, Macron emphasized his pet theory of “strategic autonomy” for Europe, presumably led by France, to become a “third superpower.”

He said “the great risk” Europe faces is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy,” while flying from Beijing to Guangzhou, in southern China, aboard COTAM Unité, France’s Air Force One.

Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party have enthusiastically endorsed Macron’s concept of strategic autonomy and Chinese officials constantly refer to it in their dealings with European countries. Party leaders and theorists in Beijing are convinced the West is in decline and China is on the ascendant and that weakening the transatlantic relationship will help accelerate this trend.

“The paradox would be that, overcome with panic, we believe we are just America’s followers,” Macron said in the interview. “The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” he said.

 

https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-china-america-pressure-interview/

[Karla Cabello]

the winning side 

[CBC]

Macron isn't France nor the EU 

[Ryan]

He’s right.

 

I hope he knows that goes both ways. 

[Tropez]

10 minutes ago, CBC said:

Macron isn't France nor the EU 

He’s the French president, and believes that France is the natural leader of the EU. And seeks to create a third superpower with the EU led by the French. 

[Taylena]

The US just keep taking Ls lately. 

[Kassi]

Basically, he's afraid of global destabilization and France can't afford to take an economic hit by alienating China. 

 

 

[Zoe_]

US has saved Europe on multiple occasions. It's time we let them fight their own battles.

[HASHTAGPOW]

Talent wins

[bad guy]

Lol. I wish the EU good luck without US support, but then again the US has been on a downward spiral into hell for years now so I can't blame other countries for distancing themselves.

[Horizon Flame]

1 hour ago, Tropez said:

He’s the French president, and believes that France is the natural leader of the EU. And seeks to create a third superpower with the EU led by the French. 

Good luck with that. 

[FightForTanas]

Arent the people of france burning everything and staging protests over their fascist presidents retirement restrictions? Of course he would side with china, he's another wannabe mini dictator. Maybe he should focus on that.  

[Dialamba]

And he thinks becoming China’s ***** is any better 
 

always traveling to escape his responsibilities 

[Orsay]

after they helped us win the revolutionary war and gave us that damn statue? ok... fake!

[Cryptique]

No one in their right mind would choose CHINA over US..

 

not taking a side, more like it

[BTS]

There’s 27 countries in the EU. 
France isn’t the whole EU 

[Archetype]

There is absolutely no way the EU can stay neutral if China and the US ever engage in war.  He is flat out stupid for saying this especially at a time when his own citizens want him gone.  It’s also extremely hypocritical, ironic, and just flat out wrong for anyone who supports Ukrainian autonomy from Russia to stay silent on Taiwan.  I’ll be waiting to see how other major EU leaders respond to this at a time when US reliance is at a two decade high with zero alternatives.

 

Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if this + the French riots mark the end of Macron’s political career.  

Edited April 10, 2023 by Archetype

[#Beautiful]

3 hours ago, Tropez said:

He’s the French president, and believes that France is the natural leader of the EU. And seeks to create a third superpower with the EU led by the French. 

lmao

[Cain]

3 hours ago, Tropez said:

He’s the French president, and believes that France is the natural leader of the EU. And seeks to create a third superpower with the EU led by the French. 

[Walk_Away21]

Not when the US has bailed their flop ass out of so many wars.  

[wastedpotential]

3 hours ago, Zoe_ said:

US has saved Europe on multiple occasions. It's time we let them fight their own battles.

The last time the US stepped back and let Europe deal with its own crisis independently was the war in Bosnia... which only ended when the Europeans went back to the US and begged for help. 

[ClashAndBurn]

Wow, the Bush-Obama-Trump-Biden conga line of foreign policy disasters really has tanked the US's standing in the world, huh?

[wastedpotential]

There are a few things wrong with the assumptions here

 

A) Is China in a position to actually provide the EU with any benefit beyond the goods that they manufacture? They don't have the military capability to step in and defend Europe from Russia or to break up fighting between the Europeans, and nor do they want to. They don't have the financial capability to bail out the Euro when an economic crunch occurs which has happened multiple times in the past 20 years. They don't have the food or fuel resources to spare to Europe in a time of a crisis (and they don't have the cultural and historical links which would drive them to do so, even if they did). 

 

B) Is France in a position to set the tone of EU foreign policy? France has a long history of desperately wanting to lead European politics and EU foreign policy, taking an action in one particular way, and then the rest of the EU ignoring them (ie the war in Iraq or Macron's failed negotiations with Putin last year). France is by far the least militarily and economically dependent country in the EU on the US, so they've often felt stifled by US influence and power in the region. Even if France chooses to take this step unilaterally, there's basically no way that any other country in the EU will follow them.

 

C) Is strategic autonomy from the US a viable path forward? No. The French have been trying to pull away from the US militarily since they left the NATO command structure in 1958 and it's literally never worked for them. The French alone do not have the financial or natural resources to completely re-build the complete supply chain of all military goods that are manufactured in the US (since, in order to keep the French in line with their policy goals, weapons sales are usually conditional), and any of the European partner nations that might have the resources to help increase strategic autonomy (the UK and Germany, with some degree of assistance from Spain, Italy, or Poland) have all doubled down on buying US planes and weapons and the like. 

 

France has the mindset of an Imperial Power, with an Empire's worth of manpower and money and resources and that's... not reality anymore. If France wants to go its own way and become the 'middle power' between the US and China then there's nothing stopping them, but they can't expect the rest of the EU to try and follow. 

[Swirl900]

13 minutes ago, wastedpotential said:

There are a few things wrong with the assumptions here

 

A) Is China in a position to actually provide the EU with any benefit beyond the goods that they manufacture? They don't have the military capability to step in and defend Europe from Russia or to break up fighting between the Europeans, and nor do they want to. They don't have the financial capability to bail out the Euro when an economic crunch occurs which has happened multiple times in the past 20 years. They don't have the food or fuel resources to spare to Europe in a time of a crisis (and they don't have the cultural and historical links which would drive them to do so, even if they did). 

 

B) Is France in a position to set the tone of EU foreign policy? France has a long history of desperately wanting to lead European politics and EU foreign policy, taking an action in one particular way, and then the rest of the EU ignoring them (ie the war in Iraq or Macron's failed negotiations with Putin last year). France is by far the least militarily and economically dependent country in the EU on the US, so they've often felt stifled by US influence and power in the region. Even if France chooses to take this step unilaterally, there's basically no way that any other country in the EU will follow them.

 

C) Is strategic autonomy from the US a viable path forward? No. The French have been trying to pull away from the US militarily since they left the NATO command structure in 1958 and it's literally never worked for them. The French alone do not have the financial or natural resources to completely re-build the complete supply chain of all military goods that are manufactured in the US (since, in order to keep the French in line with their policy goals, weapons sales are usually conditional), and any of the European partner nations that might have the resources to help increase strategic autonomy (the UK and Germany, with some degree of assistance from Spain, Italy, or Poland) have all doubled down on buying US planes and weapons and the like. 

 

France has the mindset of an Imperial Power, with an Empire's worth of manpower and money and resources and that's... not reality anymore. If France wants to go its own way and become the 'middle power' between the US and China then there's nothing stopping them, but they can't expect the rest of the EU to try and follow. 

This. Remember when Macron said NATO is dead and then the invasion of Ukraine happened. Literal egg in the face.

 

2 hours ago, FightForTanas said:

Arent the people of france burning everything and staging protests over their fascist presidents retirement restrictions? Of course he would side with china, he's another wannabe mini dictator. Maybe he should focus on that.  

Also this. Macron is particularly embarrassing because he LOVES to hang out with authoritarians. At first I thought it was because he was an idiot and thought he could actually change their trajectory. Now it's clear he just wants to emulate them!

Edited April 10, 2023 by Swirl900

[Zaram]

43 minutes ago, Walk_Away21 said:

Not when the US has bailed their flop ass out of so many wars.  

I'm pretty sure they dragged the EU in more wars in than out