French President Emmanuel Macron says that Europe should have its own strategic autonomy and "avoid the trap to be caught in the crises which are not ours," referring to Taiwan, which is at the core of the current China-US crisis. Currently China is holding massive war games in the vicinity of Taiwan as retaliation of a meeting between Taiwan's President and the US Speaker of the House.
Macron, in an interview on Sunday with French economic daily Les Echos, expressed his belief that China's main preoccupation is the current confrontation with the United States, particularly over Taiwan, and that China sees Europe as a pawn in the conflict.
However, he emphasised the importance of European unity while not following the U.S. or China's agendas. "Europe must establish its own interests and move at its own pace, and not become a vassal of either power," he said.
"The Chinese are also concerned about their unity, and from their point of view, Taiwan is a component of that. It is important to understand how they think," according to Macron.
Macron returned from a four-day trip to Beijing and Guangzhou on Saturday, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He was accompanied by a trade delegation that included 60 CEOs of France's largest companies. His remarks are a far cry from the increasingly harsh China criticism employed by the US.
The publication of Les Echos' interview with the French president coincides with massive exercises by the Chinese navy in the close vicinity of Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing regards as a province which it wants to incorporate under Communist rule.
"Serious warning"
On Saturday, just hours after Macron left China, Chinese fighter jets and warships started the "Joint Sword" war games, a three-day operation which includes rehearsing an encirclement of Taiwan.
According to the Peoples Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China's defence forces, the "Joint Sword" exercises serve as a "serious warning" against "the collusion and provocation of 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces and provocative external forces" and appear to be a direct reaction to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with US Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.
Tsai made a stopover in California on Thursday after visiting Guatemala and Belize, two of only 13 countries that still maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei. Beijing generally frowns upon "informal" meetings between Taiwanese leaders and politicians of Western countries that have formally recognised Taiwan as "inseparable part of China."
"Authoritarian expansionism"
In a lengthy editorial, the Peoples Liberation Army Daily accuses Taiwan of undermining Beijing's reunification plans, while "relying on the United States to seek independence."
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen denounced the drills, pledging to work with "the US and other like-minded countries" in the face of "continued authoritarian expansionism".
In Washington, a State Department spokesperson said the United States had "consistently urged restraint and no change to the status quo", but noted it had ample resources to fulfill its security commitments in Asia.
The United States has been deliberately ambiguous on whether it would defend Taiwan militarily, although for decades it has sold weapons to Taipei to help ensure its self-defence.
Taipei's defence ministry said it had detected 11 Chinese warships and 70 aircraft around Taiwan on Sunday.
Exercises on Monday will include live-fire drills off the rocky coast of China's Fujian province, about 80 km south of Taiwan's Matsu Islands and 190 km from Taipei.
(With agencies)
