Macron declines to support US stance on China

Emmanuel Macron has distanced himself from Washington's confrontational policy on Taiwan, saying that Western Europe must pursue "strategic autonomy" and avoid getting dragged into confrontations on behalf of the US. He met with Chinese President Xi Jinping prior to the interview, concluding that if Europeans cannot resolve the crisis in Ukraine, how can they credibly say on Taiwan: 'watch out, if you do something wrong we will be there'. Hours after Macron left Chinese airspace, Beijing launched military exercises around Taiwan, a move widely perceived as a response to the island's pro-independence leader Tsai Ing-Wen holding a meeting with US lawmakers in California on Wednesday. Relations between China and the US are at an historic low point, with US President Joe Biden suggesting on several occasions last year that Washington would intervene militarily to prevent Beijing reunifying Taiwan with the mainland. The conflict in Ukraine has largely scuppered discussions of "strategic autonomy" in Europe, as Macron and Angela Merkel had discussed lessening their reliance on the US in recent years.

However, a change in power in Berlin saw Olaf Scholz' government reverse decades of pacifist foreign policy and arm Ukraine at Washington's behest, while both France and Germany have supplied armored vehicles, ammunition, and tanks to Kiev's forces. Despite speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin on several occasions since last February, Macron has not managed to push the Kremlin toward halting its operation in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked last summer that the French president "is still talking about the strategic independence of the EU" and that they will not be allowed to have it.