By President Emmanuel Macron is being played by China. His own diplomats know the text. It’s not some ancient document; it was scripted for Charles de Gaulle and has been rolled out for every French president since then. They ought to have a copy in the Quai d’Orsay.
This time, the president thinks he has discovered a privileged role for France in dealing with China. His belief has been strengthened by a laudatory call to his diplomatic counselor, Emmanuel Bonne, from Beijing’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, who outranks the Chinese foreign minister and is thus held to be close to the throne.
According to the Xinhua news agency, Wang “appreciated” Macron’s “important” remarks emphasizing “France’s independent diplomatic tradition’ and spoke of their “comprehensive strategic partnership.”
Decoded, this means China sees progress in its ambition to detach France from the Western alliance and to divide its interlocutors over Ukraine, Taiwan, trade, and other contentious issues. Beijing was also pleased when France vetoed a NATO office in Tokyo.
The call followed Macron’s visit to China in April, which Xinhua termed “a great success,” his “informal” chats with its leader Xi Jinping and an unwise interview in which the president echoed the ideal of solitary diplomatic grandeur so dear to his predecessors.
The playbook entails a lavish but content-lite visit to China, moments of “rare” intimacy with its self-cloistered leaders, and the promise of abundance to come. Propaganda is stilled, flowery words blossom.