French president Macron bags many deals with China but ends up annoying Xi Jinping

PLA has launched a military exercise encircling Taiwan to show displeasure over Taiwan President meeting US House Speaker and PLA Daily published articles warning Taiwan from maintaining close ties with the US.

China ‘freezes’ the visas of two Indian journalists based in Beijing.The PLA launched a three-day military exercise around Taiwan to register displeasure over Taiwanese president’s US visit. French President Emmanuel Macron and EU President Ursula von der Leyen complete their Beijing visit.

Leaked documents reveal the UK’s plans to deter China in the Pacific. Chinascope looks at the heightened military tension in Taiwan Strait – and much more. France’s Macron and European Union’s von der Leyen finally made their much-discussed trip to Beijing.

Macron’s high hopes of making Chinese President Xi Jinping commit to pushing Russia to end the war in Ukraine didn’t exactly pan out as he had expected. Macron’s repeated attempts to elicit a response from Xi weren’t devoid of diplomatic gaffe. Macron took roughly twice as long as Xi – a protocol faux pas – which was noticed by the Chinese side.

“Xi himself at times looked impatient and annoyed as Macron continued speaking. The Chinese leader heaved several deep sighs and appeared uncomfortable as Macron addressed him directly while apparently ad-libbing on the Ukraine war and their joint responsibility to uphold peace,” reported The Politico’s Clea Caulcutt and Jamil Anderlini.

On Ukraine, the Chinese state media said the two sides have expressed “support for all efforts to restore peace in Ukraine based on international law and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter”.

But Macron may have at least got some business deals – including one rumoured for Airbus – under his belt as he left Beijing. However, the story is a bit complicated.

Before the signing of the business deal, rumours had circulated about a new Airbus deal to sell 160 aircraft to China. The agreement eventually signed for 150 A320Neo planes and 10 A350s, worth €36 billion, was initially announced last year. Another deal Airbus signed on the last day of Macron’s visit was the sale of 50 H160 helicopters to Chinese leasing firm GDAT.

Xi struck a chord of deepening cooperation with France during his talks with Macron. “China is willing to work with France to deepen cooperation in fields such as agriculture, food, aerospace, and civil nuclear energy, to cultivate new growth points for cooperation in service trade, green development, and technological innovation, and to support the two sides in jointly building a carbon-neutral centre and strengthening joint training of talents,” said Xi.

What may come across as a surprise to some in Europe, China and France agreed to “deepen exchanges between the militaries of two countries in the current geopolitical environment”.

Noah Barkin of Rhodium Group, the author of the China in Europe newsletter, says Macron’s decision to bring along EU President von der Leyen didn’t send a message of European unity – and instead may have been counterproductive. “It looks like Macron misplayed his hand,” said Noah Barkin in an interview with Financial Times.

But another recent event on the other side of the world was about to escalate tensions in Beijing’s immediate neighbourhood.

As soon as Macron, von der Leyen and Taiwan’s former president Ma Ying-jeou left the Chinese mainland, the PLA announced a three-day military exercise encircling Taiwan to express Beijing’s displeasure over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, where she vowed to ‘defend the peaceful status quo’.

Colonel Shi Yi, the spokesperson of the Eastern Theatre Command, said that the PLA would launch a combat readiness exercise called ‘joint sword’ from 8-10 April.

On Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said they had detected 71 Chinese military aircraft and nine ships around Taiwan in 24 hours. Of these, 31 aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait median line until noon on Sunday.

The PLA Daily published a series of commentaries warning the Taiwanese authorities from maintaining close ties with the US.

“This is a serious warning against the collusion and provocation of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and external forces, a legitimate and necessary action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, a demonstration to the world that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has thwarted all ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities and external interference, and a resolute demonstration to the world of the PLA has a strong determination to defeat all ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities and external interference and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said one of the articles.

Experts had expected a muted response from Beijing to the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy. Though the exercise announced around Taiwan may seem drastic, the military tensions are unlikely to escalate further.

Indian journalists have always found it difficult to report from Beijing as the negotiation over who gets to report from China is based on diplomatic negotiations between the two countries.

Now, China has announced it will ‘freeze’ the journalist visas of The Hindu’s Ananth Krishnan and Prasar Bharati’s Anshuman Mishra. Both journalists are in India and have been told not to return to China.

The Chinese foreign ministry alleges that India has treated Chinese journalists ‘unfairly’, so the ministry decided to freeze the visas of Indian journalists as a ‘countermeasure’.

“A few days ago, the Indian side asked a journalist of the Xinhua News Agency to leave the country by March 31, citing the reason that he had been in the country for six years,” said Mao Ning, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson.

Meanwhile, India’s Ministry of External Affairs denied China’s allegation that their journalists were treated unfairly.

Beijing recently announced the standardised Chinese names for 11 locations in Arunachal Pradesh, creating a storm in Indian media. China had made similar attempts in 2017 and 2021 to project a lawfare strategy vis-à-vis Line of Actual Control (LAC).

(ThePrint)