Macron’s Latest Faux Pas Actually Makes Him Seem Almost American

Toss this in the category of things that neither most French citizens nor Senator Rubio wish to hear: President Macron’s latest round of word hockey makes him almost as American as he is, well, French. That is not only because nothing a sophisticated leader of France says should be taken at face value, but also — enter a classic French paradox — there are no indications Paris would really wobble on Taiwan should the need arise to come to its defense. No less significant is that the war in Ukraine is now well into its second year. What set the world off, of course, were the utterances the 45-year-old Mr. Macron made aboard Cotam Unité, the French version of Air Force One, on his way back from a three-day state visit to Beijing, where he had been joined by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. His most salient remark was as follows: “Being an ally does not mean being a vassal … doesn’t mean that we don’t have the right to think for ourselves.”The initial trigger for the comments, which Mr. Macron subsequently defended while in the Netherlands even as some of his staffers tried walking them back, was Taiwan. There was more: “The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” Mr. Macron said while airborne, adding that Europe should not get “caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy.”That was enough to make the internet go legs all akimbo, at least in diplomatic circles. In a video posted on social media, Senator Rubio said, “If our allies’ position is, in fact, Macron speaks for all of Europe, and their position now is they are not going to pick sides between the UٍS and China over Taiwan, maybe we shouldn’t be picking sides either. Maybe we should basically say we’re going to focus on Taiwan and the threats that China poses, and you guys handle Ukraine.”Answering that riposte without an explicit invitation to do so was not the Élysée Palace, which naturally stands by its man, but Germany’s fresh-faced foreign minister, Anna Baerbock. On Thursday, in the course of her own visit to Communist China (it seems to be in vogue these days), Ms. Baerbock said, “We are currently seeing how important it is to have partners around the world who share our values at our side when we face our own security threats. That is why it is so important for us, because we are vulnerable as Germany and as the European Union, that we cannot be indifferent to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait.”Fewer feathers seemed ruffled at the White House than among some Republican lawmakers. Earlier this week a state department spokesman, Vedant Patel, told reporters, “There is immense convergence between us and our European allies and partners and how we tackle [China’s] challenge head-on.” The national security council spokesman, John Kirby, also weighed in, saying that “we’ll let the Élysée speak for President Macron’s comments — we’re focused on the terrific collaboration and coordination that we have with France as an ally and a friend.”In any case, there is no doubt that Mr. Macron himself would refute the suggestion that he is becoming un peu American. He might even wish to remind Washington, after the current choppy waters calm, or over a flute of Champagne, how President de Gaulle yanked France out of NATO’s integrated command structure in 1966 (Paris did not rejoin the alliance’s integrated command until 2009). Yet doing so would likely not endear him to, say, Republican Michael McCaul, the Republican of Texas who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Mr. McCaul said that Mr. Macron’s views were “disheartening because the Chinese Communist Party’s threat to Taiwan is a growing danger to the global balance of power.”That the Red Chinese threat is real and growing is a given. Yet fortifying Europe’s “strategic autonomy,” as Mr. Macron seems intent on doing, and recognizing the multifaceted threats from Beijing are not necessarily mutually exclusive. On the topic of Ukraine, there is no doubt that America and Britain have done far more of the heavy lifting, and financing, of the country’s defense against Russia than has France or indeed the European Union as a whole. But France, Russia, and Ukraine share certain geographical confines that America does not. That is very easy to forget when one is separated from another continent by an ocean.Mr. Macron is a fervent admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte, the wily one-time emperor of the French. He assuredly does not want to rebuild that short-lived French empire, but the view of the world from Paris has always been and always will be different from our own. When this country needed some heavy lifting a couple centuries ago, it is worth recalling, France was with us. And so, for a while to come at least, is Emmanuel Macron. He was re-elected. He survived a no-confidence vote in his government, a sign that even though the French can’t stand his pension reform deal, eventually they will come around. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is closing in on Team Macron in the polls, but France is a good three years away from the next legislative elections. So, despite some wishful whispers to the contrary, the Fifth Republic will not be replaced by a sixth; Monsieur Macron is the man we’ve got. As for the Frenchman’s rogue-lite comments on Taiwan: Is there anything more American than speaking one’s mind? As that great French revolutionary once said, “De l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace.” Successful French statesmen, and that does not include François Hollande, know that a little audacity can sometimes pay unexpected dividends.Not always. Mr. Macron may have miscalculated a little on this one. He should know that this White House views Communist China as the no. 1 menace to global security. But in the meantime his puff of Gallic alpha male energy barely made it into the French newspapers. France is a fairly big country, with lots of issues at the moment.A bigger test of Mr. Macron’s allegiances will come this summer when not only the sidewalks of Paris heat up but also, as French and other reports indicate, the looming battles in Ukraine are expected to do so as well.

Macron’s Latest Faux Pas Actually Makes Him Seem Almost American

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