- France's President warned that if US-China relations "heat up," Europe would face significant challenges
- Emmanuel Macron believes that Europe will face a considerable risk as it "gets caught up in crises" outside the region
- He said Europe must invest more in military, nuclear, and renewable energy and less in the US dollar to become less dependent on the US
French President Emmanuel Macron stated in an interview after a three-day official trip to China that Europe must decrease its reliance on the United States and prevent being driven into the US-China tensions over Taiwan.
Macron discussed his pet notion of "strategic autonomy" for Europe, presumably led by France, to become a "third superpower" after spending almost six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping throughout his trip during an interview with Politico and Les Echos.
While traveling from Beijing to Guangzhou in southern China aboard COTAM Unité, France's Air Force One, Emmanuel Macron stated that the tremendous danger Europe confronts is that it "gets caught up in crises" outside the region, which "prevents it from building its strategic autonomy."
"We don't want to depend on others for critical topics," Emmanuel Macron said in the interview published on Sunday.
French President Emmanuel Macron's idea of "strategic autonomy" has been wholeheartedly accepted by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. Beijing officials often refer to it in their interactions with European nations.
Emmanuel Macron Urges Europe To Lessen Its Reliance on The US
Beijing officials and theorists believe eroding the transatlantic alliance would hasten the West's fall and China's rise. The French leader also noted in the interview that the contradiction would be that European nations, "overcome with panic," assume they are mere "followers" of America.
He added that Europeans must decide whether it is best to escalate Taiwan's political turmoil. He continued that the worst thing would be for Europeans to believe they had to follow the United States' policy and Beijing's "overreaction" to the China-Taiwan conflict.
Communist China considers democratic Taiwan part of its territory and has never stopped trying to annex the island by force. The government of Taiwan rejects China's claims explicitly. During his official China tour, Emmanual Macron underscored that Europe should not escalate the fight but establish its status as a "third pole" in the US-China conflict.
For Europe to become less reliant on the United States, Macron said, the continent must increase funding for its defense sector, advance nuclear and renewable energy, and lessen its reliance on the US currency, according to Reuters.
Emmanuel Macron also expressed concern about the "extraterritoriality" of the US dollar, which he said may lead European corporations to avoid trade with sanctioned nations. France's Head of State noted that if the US-China tensions "heat up," it will be a massive challenge for Europe to find time and resources to "finance" its "strategic autonomy, and we will become vassals."
US Expresses Skepticism on China's Openness to France
While in China, Emmanuel Macron attempted to distinguish the European Union's approach to Beijing from the United States' more rigid stance by traveling alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as Europe tries to find a middle ground by negotiating trade and investment deals with China while also pressing for human rights and Ukrainian autonomy, The Financial Post reported.
Meanwhile, Washington is skeptical of China's diplomatic overtures to France. Suppose its relations with the United States worsen. In that case, China may seek a reconfiguration that strategically takes it closer to Europe, according to people familiar with the US government's perspective, per a previous HNGN report.
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