France’s Macron bows before Xi before even arriving in Beijing
Tom Rogan
President Emmanuel Macron of France arrives in Beijing on Wednesday. He’ll also travel with Xi Jinping to Guangzhou, where Xi’s father was a senior official. The French government is spinning the line that his top priority will be to persuade Xi to limit China’s support for Vladimir Putin. The reality, as underlined by the legion of business leaders Macron is taking with him, is that this trip is simply another French play for more Chinese trade and investment.
Germany’s Olaf Scholz made the trade pilgrimage to Xi last November, Spain’s Pedro Sanchez did so last week, and now it’s Macron’s turn. Macron seems determined to avoid even the hint that he’ll put any real pressure on Xi. This bears note because the European Union’s vast trade dealings with China afford it significant prospective leverage with which to demand that Xi stop providing political cover for Putin over the war in Ukraine. The key is that the EU’s powerhouse leaders, Macron and Scholz, are loath to use that leverage.
Indeed, when it comes to the possibility of China providing weapons to Russia, supposedly an EU red line, the French intend to play nice with Xi.
As a French presidential official told Politico, “We aren’t going to threaten, but send some warnings: The Chinese need to understand that [sending weapons] would have consequences for Europe, for us… We need to remind them of our security interests.” Politico added that “the official said Macron would steer clear of threatening sanctions.”
Instead, the official noted that Macron’s decision to “be the first French president to visit Guangzhou is also a personal touch, since President Xi’s father used to be a party leader there.” Politico assesses that “The French are hoping the time Macron spends privately with Xi will help win Chinese support on issues such as stopping Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine or halting the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children.”
Good luck with that, Emmanuel.
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Honestly, this is pathetic stuff. You can bet that Macron won’t issue any bold statements on Hong Kong while he’s just next door in Guangzhou. Regardless, the notion that the Chinese are going to be moved into policy shifts by such overtly deferential rhetoric is patently ludicrous. Macron and his advisers are not idiots; they must know as much. But that’s the point. They don’t care about Ukraine or pressuring Xi to accept basic principles of international order nearly so much as they care about increased trade. It’s “strategic autonomy,” with a trade-at-all-costs autonomous setting.
To be fair to the EU, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel with Macron. Von der Leyen has adopted a more hawkish stance toward China of late. She even earned Chinese threats over recent remarks in which she suggested the EU needed to take a more robust stance in its dealings with Beijing. The head of China’s foreign ministry EU section warned von der Leyen that “If there is any risk, it is the risk of linking trade with ideology and national security and creating bloc confrontation.” Those words offer an overt articulation of Beijing’s central argument in its dealings with EU officials. Namely, that the EU’s access to privileged trade and investment requires the EU’s political appeasement of Beijing on other foreign policy matters such as human rights, democracy, and Taiwan. Appeasement Macron, Scholz, and Sanchez are happy to provide.
The Biden administration might not care about this blatant undermining of key U.S. national security concerns, but those who wish to replace Biden should pay heed.