"Total Failure"

In return, he brought with him a handful of orders for French industry, writes Alexander Gerlach.
French President Emmanuel Macron has once again proven that he does not belong to the heavy category when it comes to diplomacy. He did a disservice to the European Union and the free world with his trip to China. He was proud that Xi Jinping invited him for a private conversation that lasted several hours.
Now it seems that during the meeting, Xi showered Macron with such compliments that, as soon as the latter returned to Paris, he suddenly started saying that Europe should not blindly follow U.S. policy when it comes to China.
It is the recognizable language of Beijing, which sees Europe as a pendant to the US anyway. On the one hand, the communist nomenclature incites against the EU, because China needs this part of the free world for economic growth. Second (and this is more important) because Xi wants to drive a wedge between the nations of the free world and divide them.
Because if Xi makes good on his threat and attacks Taiwan, what matters to him is how the free world will react to his democratic partners in Taipei.
Macron advocates that the Europeans should not be "vassals" of the USA (this is exactly the vocabulary of Beijing), but he does not give an answer to the question of what the alternative would look like if China annexes Taiwan.

The French economy will be rewarded

That's exactly the scenario the Chinese military practiced over the weekend with a three-day military blockade of the island, showing the world that Beijing is ready to attack Taiwan.
And when France, the EU's only remaining nuclear power, says it will not join Washington in defending the freedom of threatened Taiwan, Xi's office pops...

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