That’s why Macron flatters the Chinese – in 4 points

From the United States to the Czech Republic, there has been criticism of an interview Macron gave on his return flight from China. On the Taiwan issue, he said: “The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans should be followers and adapt to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction.”

In Germany, “Atlanticists” such as the CDU politician Norbert Röttgen asked whether the left-liberal magazine Spiegel or Macron was “mad” or “all in good spirits”. Others say the Frenchman raises the legitimate and timely question of how Europeans should behave following possible US sanctions against Beijing.

These are possible explanations for his statements:

Macron allows himself to be blinded by others

The 45-year-old president is more suggestive than it seems. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pompous reception likely had an effect on Macron right up to the return flight — and thereby on Beijing’s view that Taiwan was a domestic political affair; other countries, be it France or the US, are not concerned with the “internal” conflict.

According to voices at the Elysee Palace, Macron did not raise the Taiwan issue himself; Ukraine was his priority. Consciously or not, the Frenchman took over Xi’s positions, just as he had already stated after numerous telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin that the Russian president should not “humiliate”.

France is a “free” ally

Before his statement about European ‘followers’, Macron had already caused a stir when he described US-led NATO as ‘brain dead’. Such opinions, testifying to an old anti-American reflex, have been commonplace in Paris for decades. Charles de Gaulle, founder of the nuclear Force de Frappe, stayed away from NATO military command, placing his country at the same distance from the US as it was from the then Soviet Union.

That it was American soldiers who liberated France from the Nazis is not forgotten in France, but is pushed aside by the heroic discourse on the resistance and liberation of Paris by the French tank general Leclerc.

The situation today is similar to the war in Ukraine, in which French military aid is significantly less than that of the United States. Macron says Europe needs its own army, independent of the United States, to defend itself even more. However, he does not want to share the decision about the use of French nuclear weapons with others.

Macron still has a score to settle with Biden

Macron’s clear distancing from US Taiwan policy can also be read as a stroke of luck after the “Aukus affair”. By 2016, France had sold 12 submarines to Australia worth €34 billion; However, in 2021, Australia terminated the contract at the instigation of US President Joe Biden, who launched the new Pacific alliance “Aukus” against China with Britain and Australia.

France, which has large overseas territories such as Polynesia or New Caledonia in the South Pacific, felt betrayed. Since then, Macron has said French interests in the Pacific are not aligned with American interests. In particular, Paris has no interest in escalating the Taiwan issue or the trade dispute between Washington and Beijing in general.

He wants to distract from the pension conflict

For some time now, the French president has returned to foreign policy, the most prestigious domain of the head of state. After state visits to the United States and China, Macron is hardly back in Paris this week for a new state visit to the Netherlands.

He is trying to give the impression that he is above the domestic political crisis surrounding his pension reform, which has been driving millions of French people onto the streets for weeks and culminates on Friday with the ruling of the constitutional court.

Macron is urging his ministers to address popular issues such as inflation, energy or immigration. Critics accuse him of using a “scheherazade strategy” – based on the oriental classic Arabian Nights, in which the narrator made up a new story every night.