Quote (Hamsterbaby @ Apr 9 2023 04:05pm)
Xi just bought 160 airbus from him.
And they are going to potentially have some naval exchange around New Caledonia and French Polynesian. :lol:
I genuinely think Macron is one of the savvier statesmen in the world, at least those coming from the west. He was one of the only voices early during the Ukraine invasion that had more of a middle of the road take on this and actually tried very hard to engage Putin/Russia to find some middle ground. It's difficult to say to what extent was he genuine about actually brokering peace or was it just a smokescreen to allow the west to prepare the hundreds of billions of weapons/training to flow into Ukraine as a delay tactic. I think he's doing the right thing with the pension reform in France even though its a deeply unpopular thing.
It's really hard to know for sure if he's genuine in some of the things he said in China or he's just saying things that the Chinese want to hear. I think the concerns he echoed are genuine, what I question is whether he's genuine about being impartial or Europe has already decided to be camp US, regardless of how damaging it is to Europe.
One things for sure though, Europe is a net loser as a result of the Ukraine war, only an idiot would deny this. Europe will be a net loser once again if they decide to take the US side in the China-Taiwan question. What does the collective EU have to gain from being pro US hegemony via Taiwan in east Asia? From where i'm standing they have way more to lose if they take an antagonistic tone with China over the medium-long term.
This post was edited by ofthevoid on Apr 9 2023 02:50pm