Russia has set Europe on fire. China threatens to do the same to Asia. But French President Emmanuel Macron has higher priorities, like looking for a European Union friend in China. Because of course he is.
Before reaching out to China, France over the centuries balanced foes in the center of Europe by reaching out to the likes of the USSR, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire.
Let's not forget Macron's pre-war outreach to Russia. With that dead in the water, Plan C is in effect.
Have no doubt that the foe Macron is looking at now is America and NATO. So of course Macron said this after his pilgrimage to China:
Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on his plane back from a three-day state visit to China.
Speaking with POLITICO and two French journalists after spending around six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip, Macron emphasized his pet theory of “strategic autonomy” for Europe, presumably led by France, to become a “third superpower.”
China opposes America and has the power to do so. Of course Macron admires that combination.
But was Macron's visit to China the week his grand diplomatic project floundered?
For François Heisbourg, a European security analyst, [Macron's early April visit to China] encapsulated all that has gone wrong with Macron on foreign policy since the war in Ukraine upended the global security order.
Although the French president arguably has the right diagnosis that Europe needs to become a stronger, more independent power, he says, Macron has been an ineffective messenger and displayed a dangerous naivete, first towards Russia in the run-up to war and now with China.
Maybe. So what?
The European diplomatic project isn't the point. The power to have a diplomatic project is the point:
The entire point of EU-Russia talks [about Nordstream 2 pipelines] is to make it seem as if the European Union itself is a sovereign entity to negotiate for all of the for-now sovereign states that belong to the EU.
Such diplomacy only cares about the process that elevates the EU and not the actual topics under discussion.
And Macron is the EU's man and the EU is Macron's vehicle for his ambition:
Macron really doesn't like the fact that NATO is dominated by America, which provides the bulk of the alliance military power. By weakening NATO, France can hopefully reduce and ultimately eject American influence in European defense matters. Have no doubt the EU sees America as its enemy[.]
Both of those articles about Macron bring up the proto-imperial EU's "strategic autonomy" ambition. Macron wants "strategic autonomy" for the EU--which means wrecking NATO and ejecting American influence in Europe.
And France--which means Macron--will lead the EU.
And how much worse would Macron have sounded without its veto over quotes of him, as the first article notes?
The quotes in this article were all actually said by the president, but some parts of the interview in which the president spoke even more frankly about Taiwan and Europe’s strategic autonomy were cut out by the [president's office as a condition of granting the interview].
Don't let the the EU rise up to be a threat to America and to European democracy. Scorn it. Isolate it. Starve it. Kill it. Bury it deep. Salt the earth.
And for now, America and its friends in Europe should be working on sending Macron to Saint Helena island on permanent vacation.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
