In an interview released on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe could not be “America’s followers” of China. Macron commented when returning home after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden campaigned on a vow to restore international relations to their “good old days,” but the world now seems to be passing the United States by in favor of China.
During his three-day visit to China, Macron spent around six hours meeting with Xi. He also stressed that Europe shouldn’t comment on Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing considers a wayward province.
The French president said meddling in Taiwan’s business is a recipe for raising tensions to an all-time high.
Under the Biden administration, longtime U.S. friend France isn’t the only country considering business ties with China. Together with Macron, European Union President Ursula von der Leyen recently traveled to China, and only last week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was in Beijing. At their meeting, European leaders discussed bolstering diplomatic and economic ties with China while requesting China’s intervention to end Beijing ally Russian President Vladimir Putin’s conflict in Ukraine.
The issue of Ukraine is being avoided while other nations align themselves with China.
Honduras’ government severed ties with Taiwan, one of only 13 countries to no longer recognize the self-proclaimed island nation.
Last month, China brokered an agreement to improve ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two historically sworn foes. Iran’s Shia majority has supported Houthi rebels in Yemen’s civil conflict, and the insurgents have retaliated against Saudi cities with missile and drone assaults. China has allegedly mediated ceasefire negotiations between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.
The deal is “about further facilitating, along with China and Russia, the rise of a new anti-Western global order and excluding the United States from a new regional arrangement,” according to an analysis published in Foreign Policy last week.
Great job, Biden. Shall we all learn to speak Chinese?
