Tag: France

China Does an Awkward Dance with Europe Over Russia-Ukraine War

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China’s top diplomat set out on a three-nation trip Tuesday to persuade European leaders that they can do business with Beijing, even as the Chinese tried to keep faith with their “unlimited partnership” with a Russia that has plunged Europe into war. But arriving in Berlin, Foreign Minister Qin Gang was quickly confronted about the war in Ukraine. “Neutrality means taking the side of the aggressor, and that is why our guiding principle is to make it clear that we are on the side of the victim,” the German foreign…

A Chinese Ambassador’s Comments on Ex-Soviet States Draw Ire

Chin@Strategy

France summoned the Chinese ambassador to Paris, Lu Shaye, on Monday to explain his controversial remarks on French television questioning the sovereignty of post-Soviet nations. The Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, said that they would also send for China’s envoys to the three countries to discuss the matter. China’s Foreign Ministry tried to repair the damage on Monday, insisting that it recognized the sovereignty of all the former Soviet republics that have declared independence, including Ukraine. “China respects the sovereign status of former Soviet republics after the Soviet Union’s…

Baltic states condemn China envoy’s remarks over sovereignty of ex-Soviet nations

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France, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have expressed dismay after China’s ambassador in Paris questioned the sovereignty not only of Ukraine, but all the former Soviet Republics including the Baltic states. Lu Shaye’s remarks in a TV interview late on Friday raise fresh questions about the faith the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has placed in China to act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine. Lu had been asked whether he considered the peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, part of Ukraine under international law. “Even these…

The Guardian view on China and Europe: Macron’s careless words were costly | Editorial

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Four years ago, Emmanuel Macron remarked that the era of European naivety on China was over. As Andrew Small establishes in his book The Rupture, the shift was not born primarily of US pressure to pick sides – though that was unquestionably felt – but of Europe’s own dealings with Beijing. Views have hardened further thanks to China’s increasing forcefulness in foreign policy, its handling of Covid and its support for Russia over Ukraine. Last month, the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, urged a “de-risking” of relations with…

Macron Says France Backs Status Quo on Taiwan

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President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that France’s position toward Taiwan remained unchanged, but he stood by comments he made on the island’s security that dismayed some allies after he returned from a trip to China and insisted that Europe could not be a “vassal” of the United States. “France’s position and the European position on Taiwan is the same,” Mr. Macron said at a news conference in Amsterdam on the second day of a state visit to the Netherlands. “We are for the status quo. This policy is constant…

Macron stands by divisive remark about US allies ‘not being vassals’

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Emmanuel Macron has stood by his controversial comments on Taiwan, repeating that being a US ally did not mean being a “vassal”. At the end of a state visit to the Netherlands during which he has also faced protests over pension reforms at home, Macron appeared to reaffirm the remarks he made in an interview on Sunday, in which he called for Europe to act more independently from the US over Taiwan. “Being an ally does not mean being a vassal … [or] mean that we don’t have the right…

‘Sign of weakness’: Truss criticises Von der Leyen and Macron for visiting China – video

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The former British prime minister Liz Truss has criticised the visit by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the European Commission president, Ursula Von der Leyen, to Beijing, describing it as a mistake. Speaking during a Q&A after delivering the 2023 Margaret Thatcher freedom lecture on Wednesday, Truss said: ‘The idea that we can treat China as just another global player is wrong. It is a totalitarian regime and we need to adapt our policies accordingly.’ Truss also called on western countries to take a stronger line on Taiwan The…

Western Leaders Pledge Support for Ukraine at Munich Security Conference

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MUNICH — Nearly one year into the brutal and costly war in Ukraine, Western leaders pledged to remain steadfast in their support for Kyiv amid worries about whether their unity can survive what France’s president called “a prolonged conflict.” As dozens of leaders convened in Germany, Ukraine’s president opened the annual Munich Security Conference with a warning against “fatigue” and emphasizing that speed is of the essence if his country is to hold off a renewed Russian onslaught. “We need to hurry up,” Mr. Zelensky implored the attendees. He compared…

Wrath and awe: a short history of balloons and their power to fire up mob fury | Jeff Sparrow

Chin@Strategy

On 16 December 1784 – barely a year after the first crewed flight – a British cartoonist published a sketch entitled The Battle of the Balloons, depicting airships belonging to the leading powers of the day firing cannons at each other from among the clouds. In his book Falling Upwards, Richard Holmes adduces the drawing as evidence of the intimate relationship between balloons and military competition, with, for instance, the first French company of aeronauts formed on the remarkably early date of 29 March 1794. Today we might contemplate another…