Originally Posted by
m0nkfish
China wasn't 'openly rehearsing the bombing and blockade of peaceful Taiwan' a few years ago. You have to ask yourself what has changed. If we are to assume that military rehearsals indicate the absolute intent to conduct military operations then everybody is at it, including us!!
All countries, including China and the US, need to step back from this nonsense, in this regard Macron is correct. The sabre rattling approach of the US is not helping, its making a conflict much more likely.
More likely Macron's main interest is securing French export orders to China, and if that means helping Xi to undermine international support for the legitimate security interests of Taiwan then so be it. Whilst the China/Taiwan dispute remained a political one the world was rightly happy to let them sort it out amongst themselves, but the prospect of a full-scale military invasion causing massive death and destruction is something else entirely. Nobody is forcing China into this course of action, but they must be made aware that there will be consequences to military action. I'm amazed that having seen what's happened to Putin's army in Ukraine, that Xi is prepared to risk a similar debacle in Taiwan. As others have observed, they could probably now take over large parts of the Russian far east if they wanted and nobody would lift a finger to help Russia resist.
As for Macron, who knows what fantasies he entertains as he sits at the table with Putin or Xi? Perhaps he dreams of having such unchallenged power and thinks that with their backing he can separate Europe from NATO and lead a French-dominated European military organisation and sit with them as an equal. The UK and Scandinavia would not buy it but Southern Europe would probably have no choice. He can already bully the weak von der Leyen into letting him dominate the EU.