French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to China was a strategic blunder. It has caused concern and consternation in the EU, US, and Ukraine. Macron said he was furthering peace and reconciliation. But he ended up fomenting war and discord.
Macron’s visit to China
Frankly, his visit was more about France than Ukraine. Macron was channeling the imperious Charles de Gaulle. Of course, his predecessors Mitterrand and Chirac did too.
But channeling de Gaulle means acting like the leader of the whole EU. And that makes the disrespect he helped China show Ursula von der Leyen even more galling. She, of course, is the German president of the European Commission who traveled to China with him.
Meanwhile, the only thing Macron got for appeasing Xi was a promise that Xi is “willing” to call Zelensky. Again, it’s as if Macron is unaware that Xi has called Putin many times. Hell, they have even reciprocated state visits. So Xi’s willingness to call Zelensky amounts to a gaslighting insult.
Luckily, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is now on a follow-up visit. Because, as Reuters reported on Wednesday, her mission is “post-Macron damage control”:
Germany’s foreign minister begins a visit to China on Thursday aiming to reassert a common European Union policy toward Beijing days after remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron suggested disarray in the continent’s approach to the rising superpower. …
Many European politicians, diplomats and analysts saw Macron’s comments in an interview with Politico and French daily Les Echos as a gift to what they called Beijing’s goal of dismantling transatlantic unity.
Ultimately, Macron was only doing as Macron does. Moreover, this foreign minister is not the first female German leader to chastise him. Because Macron gave former German Chancellor Angela Merkel cause to do so. That was when he took it upon himself in 2019 to declare NATO “brain dead.” I saluted Merkel.
More to the point, though, imagine Ukraine today if other EU leaders had followed Macron’s lead and let NATO die.
But Macron never learns. Only that explains him going on this fool’s errand to China. He even pleaded for NATO to avoid humiliating Russia. That’s not channeling de Gaulle in that. De Gaulle would never have asked the Allied powers to avoid humiliating Germany during World War II. I denounced Macron.
Macron blunders on Taiwan in China
The problems with his visit are as many as they are vexing. But this headline from the April 9 edition of the Wall Street Journal said it all:
- Macron Blunders on Taiwan—and Ukraine: He weakens deterrence against Chinese aggression and undermines U.S. support for Europe
It’s as if Macron is unaware that China has signed an Axis accord with Russia. Because that alone makes clear how foolhardy and futile it is to ask China to broker peace in Ukraine. After all, this is tantamount to asking Japan to broker peace in Poland during World War II.
China has geostrategic interests in supporting Russia. That is, so long as doing so does not cause it to end up like Russia. After all, if Russia were to reclaim Ukraine, China would see that as a dress rehearsal to reclaim Taiwan.
Of course, the US and its (EU) NATO allies are helping Ukraine as if the fate of democracy itself is at stake. That explains their military aid to Ukraine and economic sanctions against Russia. And they are doing both to unprecedented degrees.
They hope helping Ukraine will frustrate Russia’s reclamation operation. Because they’re convinced seeing that would deter China.
Unfortunately, Macron’s visit gave China the green light to invade Taiwan. Not least because China could see it as a sign its plan to divide and conquer the EU and US is succeeding.
Emmanuel Macron has flown into a storm of criticism after he said Europe should not become a ‘vassal’ and must avoid being drawn into any conflict between the US and China over Taiwan. …
One MEP stressed that the French leader did not speak for the EU. … Macron’s ‘pipe dream’ of EU strategic autonomy and becoming a ‘third superpower’ was ‘beyond the pale’.
(The Guardian, April 10, 2023)
Alas, Macron has a Trumpian susceptibility to idle flattery. No doubt this is why China feted him like a rock star. This, while treating Ursula von der Leyen like a skunk.
But Macron risks the ignominy US ambassador April Glaspie suffered. Recall how her mixed messages reportedly gave Iraq the green light to invade Kuwait…