China celebrates Macron as U.S. and Europe fret over divisions
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Loading... - Tanith Sallom
- 19 Apr 2023
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Critics say the French president’s comments after a state visit to Beijing undermined Western efforts to present a united front on Taiwan and other issues.
Derided by concerned observers from Washington to Brussels, French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent trip to China did not go down well with allies. But he left his hosts feeling delighted.
Hundreds of cheering people were waiting to greet Macron when he arrived in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou this month, part of a high-profile state visit.
“He saw us and came right up to us and shook our hands who stood in the front row,” said Qiao Jiabao, a financial journalism student at Sun Yat-sen University, where Macron gave a speech. “I felt he was very gracious and proactive, even though we didn’t speak the same language,” Qiao told NBC News.
He said he and his friends joked that Macron, who has faced mass protests in France over his unpopular plan to raise the retirement age, had been treated so well in China that he might not want to go home.
When Macron returned to France, he faced another storm of criticism, this time over an interview in which he suggested that Europe should resist being drawn into a conflict over Taiwan and focus on “strategic autonomy” independent from both the United States and China.
His comments drew a furious backlash and raised concerns that Beijing might be succeeding in sowing division between Washington and its allies as part of its push for a world in which America has to compete for dominance with multiple other powers.
But they were celebrated in China, where the state-backed nationalist tabloid Global Times said they signaled “a dead end for the U.S. strategy of luring Europe to contain China.” Lu Shaye, the Chinese ambassador to France, said Tuesday that Macron “spoke great truths” in the tradition of French independence. Read More…
