Posted on 04/10/2023 8:43:27 AM PDT by elpadre
ABOARD COTAM UNITÉ (FRANCE’S AIR FORCE ONE) — 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.
Just hours after his flight left Guangzhou headed back to Paris, China launched large military exercises around the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its territory but the U.S. has promised to arm and defend.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.eu ...
Then France needs to step up and manage their own defense.
This is SOOOO typically French.
And especially because Macron is such a fairy, such a PR and soundbite whore, its completely expected.
excerpted”
“..“Xi was visibly annoyed for being held responsible for the Ukraine conflict and he downplayed his recent visit to Moscow,” this person said. “He was clearly enraged by the U.S. and very upset over Taiwan, by the Taiwanese president’s transit through the U.S. and [the fact that] foreign policy issues were being raised by Europeans.”.....”
Appeasing China won’t save you. I guess you frogs learned nothing from Chamberlain.
Just use and abuse us over and over again while happily slurping at the Americans tax-payers' teats courtesy of Uncle Sucker.
Maybe Brandon will hand him the reins to NATO....
“Maybe Brandon will hand him the reins to NATO....”
I won’t rule that out. These days I’m not sure who is more anti-American than Brandon, Macron, or Putin.
Should have thought about that 78 years ago.
A neocon zealot, just 2 days ago, said we needed NATO to take on China.
My reply was that none of those bastards would show up unless accidentally caught in the part of the world.
I stick by that.
None of them.
I concur. US needs to ignore the Ukraine VS and bring everyone back and prepare for the actual real threat.
AMF - YOYO
AMF - YOYO
Not even sure the Brits would help these days.
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.
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The last Frenchmen to help America, as far as I know, was the Marquis De Lafayette in April of 1780 (243 years ago) when young Lafayette, along with 12,000 French soldiers and 32,000 French sailors led the fight along side Washington against the British at Yorktown. Make no mistake, that was a MAJOR contribution by France to young America.
Since the American Revolution, over 130,000 American soldiers reciprocated and are, or were, buried (a lot of families brought sons back home) in ten European Countries (in 25 Cemeteries) and 124,000 are missing. So, slightly over a quarter million American sons died for the French and Europeans.
What has America received in return from the lowly French and Europeans (with a few exceptions) since the 1940’s? Answer: It’s been nothing but whining, complaining, demanding, vitriol and downright hatred from Liberal French leaders led by DeGaulle and now Macron with several in between them to say nothing of despicable European Leaders (a few notable exceptions like Thatcher/Churchill).
I think many of us would just like to see an American leader like Trump stand on the beach at Normandy someday soon and tell Macron to drop dead and STFU right to his face!
Not even sure the Brits can.
They can
France may be the strongest military in Europe, has no reason to hate Russia, and is more than willing to snub NATO
I don’t like globalist Macron but France like every country can decide what’s in their own best interest. France has nukes nobody is going to invade them. Germany is a pathetic lackey of the US allowing us to get away with blowing up their pipeline.
If Marine Le Pen was elected I would expect similar from her because she’s France first. Nobody in Western Europe (except the UK) is interested in either sending NATO troops to fight Russia or war with China despite the US pushing for these things to maintain its own economic hegemony. I said at the very beginning of the Ukraine proxy war that it was going to backfire and likely to lead to the splitting of NATO and or the EU and it looks like I was right.
“Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan”
If only U.S. Presidents took the same America first stance when it comes to all the stuff France and the rest of the EU wants U.S. support on. Then I could take Macron’s position well. But seeing as how France and Germany want Ukraine defended against Putin, but the U.S. (and Poland) is doing more than they are in that regard, I sincerely question Macron’s motives. He seems to be trying a play the same spoiler card France has played vis a vis the U.S. since the end of WWII - acting as a major power which they are not.
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