(Late-breaking comment)

President Macron appears to be nursing an ongoing--and serious--grudge with the United States over AUKUS. The interview published in Chinese by Radio France International suggests as much:

“矛盾会是，……我们开始跟随美国的政策，通过一种恐慌性的反射”。马克龙说：“我们欧洲人被问到的问题是……在台湾问题上加速发展符合我们的利益吗？不。最糟糕的事情是认为我们欧洲人应该在这个问题上做追随者，适应美国的步伐和中国的过度反应。”

["The paradox is that we follow the United States on the basis of panic" Macron said: "The question being asked of us in Europe is, is it in our interests to accelerate our involvement in the Taiwan issue? No." "The worst thing is to believe that we in Europe should follow suit when it comes to this question, following the pace set by the United States and China's overreaction to that."]

马克龙敦促欧洲人不要自认是美国的“追随者”, RFI, 9 April 2023, rfi.fr/cn/%E6%B3%95%E5%…

The same "logic" was apparent in another article, this one published in Les Echos:

"Les Chinois aussi sont préoccupés par leur unité et Taïwan, de leur point de vue, en est une composante. Il est important de comprendre comment ils raisonnent."

"La question qui nous est posée à nous Européens est la suivante : avons-nous intérêt à une accélération sur le sujet de Taïwan ? Non. La pire des choses serait de penser que nous, Européens, devrions être suivistes sur ce sujet et nous adapter au rythme américain et à une surréaction chinoise."

["The Chinese are also concerned about their unity and Taiwan, from their point of view, is a component of this. It is important to understand how they see it."]

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NB: A reference to an earlier statement Macron made about how Europeans are concerned about the unity of the EU. The irony is that French devotion to "unity" is generally received with skepticism by Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians and others. In my view, they all have legitimate concerns about the French (and the Germans) when it comes to dealing with Russia (and now China).

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["The question posed to us Europeans is the following: do we have an interest in (taking a stronger position on) the subject of Taiwan? No. The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans should follow suit on this subject and adapt to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction."]

Nicolas Barré, Emmanuel Macron : « L'autonomie stratégique doit être le combat de l'Europe »:Sans autonomie stratégique, l'Europe risque de « sortir de l'histoire », prévient le président de la République dans un entretien réalisé lors de sa visite d'Etat en Chine, Les Echos, 9 April 2023, lesechos.fr/monde/enjeu…

(a liberal financial newspaper in France)