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On the US and China, Macron says the quiet part out loud
Complaints about Europe’s status as ‘vassal’ of the US should register in Washington.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron visit the garden of the residence of the Governor of Guangdong, on April 7.
PHOTO: AFP
Lionel Laurent
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Three years after describing Nato as “brain dead”, Mr Emmanuel Macron is once again playing transatlantic irritant. After a trip to China or risk becoming “vassals”.
This is not the first De Gaulle-style flourish from a French leader looking to steer Europe down a less Atlanticist path. What makes this different is the timing: The Ukraine war has entered its second gruelling year, the US is heading into new elections, and Europe’s post-Cold War dependence on Washington has never been more obvious. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki crowed that the US was the “foundation” of Europe’s security. US Republican Senator Marco Rubio asked if Mr Macron was speaking for Europe, throwing in a few free hits for good measure by mocking French counter-terror campaigns in the Sahel and threatening a US pivot from the Ukraine war to focus on China.
