French President Emmanuel Macron in an interview published on Sunday said that Europe must not be a “follower” of either the US or China on Taiwan, saying the bloc risks entanglement in “crises that aren’t ours.”
His comments risk riling Washington and highlight divisions in the EU over how to approach China, as the US steps up confrontation with its closest rival and Beijing draws closer to Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.
“The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must be followers and adapt ourselves to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction,” Macron told media, including French business daily Les Echos and Politico, as he returned on Friday from a three-day state visit to Beijing.
Photo: AFP
“We must be clear where our views overlap with the US, but whether it’s about Ukraine, relations to China or sanctions, we have a European strategy,” Macron said, citing his prized ideal of EU “strategic autonomy.”
“We don’t want to get into a bloc versus bloc logic,” he added, saying Europe “should not be caught up in a disordering of the world and crises that aren’t ours.”
In response to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) meeting last week with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Beijing on Saturday launched three-day military exercises around Taiwan after Macron departed for France, including simulated strikes on Taiwanese territory.
Macron discussed Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Friday, during a visit in which he was feted while more hawkish European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was kept mostly at arm’s length.
Macron’s Elysee Palace office said the talks had been “dense and frank,” and that the French president was concerned about “growing tensions in the region” that could lead to “a terrible accident.”
Macron was “simply talking about the risk of Chinese ‘overreaction,’ forgetting China wishes to change the status quo by taking over Taiwan one way or the other,” Antoine Bondaz of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research wrote on Twitter.
“The ambiguity... instils doubt in our like-minded partners,” he added.
Taiwan is just one area that risks “an acceleration of tensions breaking out between the duopoly” of China and the US, Macron said.
If the confrontation escalates too quickly, Europeans “won’t have the time or the resources to finance our strategic autonomy and will become vassals, whereas we can build a third pole if we have a few years,” he added.
Separately, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that French lawmakers are planning a visit to Taipei.
The delegation is heading to the nation on Sunday, said a French official who is to be part of the group.
Media officers at the French National Assembly and Senate did not immediately reply when asked to comment on the plan yesterday, a public holiday in France.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS