English
Français
Extract and translated from the French E-bulletin China Analysis – Les Nouvelles de Chine n°16, Nov–Dec. 2007, pp.18-19
French Editor: M.Meidan/M.Duchâtel. Translation: Peter Brown
Overview and commentary by Mathieu Duchâtel, based on:
- Luo Shaolan, ”Sarkozy’s Visit to China. A Trip Defining the Tone of Sino-French Relations”, Yazhou Shibao (atchinese.com), 26 November 2007.
- Luo Shaolan, ”Are Sino-German Relations heading towards a cooling off?”, Yazhou Shibao (atchinese.com), 26 November 2007.
- Pan Xiaoshou, ”The Meaning of giving Sarkozy permission to touch the terra cotta army”, Yazhou Shibao (atchinese.com), 27 November 2007.
President Sarkozy was received in China like no other head of state since President Clinton in 1998. Nearly 20 billion Euros worth of contracts, a dinner with Hu Jintao at which was served the best in French cuisine – and not Chinese delicacies as is usually the custom – and the permission, granted only in exceptional circumstances, to touch the precious terra cotta soldiers of the army of the Emperor Qin Shihuang in Xi’an. For Pan Xiaoshou, this was a clear intention on the part of Beijing to “allure” the French President. (刻意討好, keyi taohao). In 1998, Beijing needed to give a substantial boost to Sino-American relations. Today, with a considerable improvement in China’s international standing and with Sino-French relations being far from in crisis, what interest does it have in giving Monsieur Sarkozy such special treatment?
First of all, there is a real complementarity of interests between the two countries. Paris needs large contracts to shore up the support given to the government by the major enterprises, as well as to improve France’s trade balance and reduce public deficit. It wants to continue to make economic cooperation and trade the driving force in bilateral relations, at the same time as maintaining a constructive and pragmatic approach and seeking to win over Beijing’s cooperation on issues that are important for Paris, such as the fight against global warming. For its part, Beijing needs an ally within the European Union to defend Chinese interests there, in particular given the prospect of a future lifting of the embargo on arms’ sales. Furthermore, China is always fond of technology transfer to make it capable, over time, of competing with the West, or at least of being less dependent on it. From this point of view, Sarkozy’s staunch pro-Atlantic stance has had no impact at all on Sino-French relations. The honeymoon just carries on between Paris and Beijing.
There is, however, one new factor which explains the importance China places on France, and that is the about-face of Berlin, which has decided to harden its policy towards Beijing. In consequence, according to Pan Xiaoshou, it was vital for Beijing to compensate for the cooling in Sino-German relations by strengthening its friendship with France. China has thus put in place its time-honoured strategy of divide and rule, which has a dual purpose. The one is to secure a supplier of technology at a time when the United States, Japan and Germany are adopting a circumspect attitude regarding the relevance of technology transfers to a State whose intentions remain obscure. The other is to try to maintain the approach of “using Europe to counter the United States” (拉歐制美, la’ou zhimei), or, at least, to avoid the situation of the West adopting a common diplomatic front based on democracy and human rights. In this regard, France was the best target.
The fact is that Paris chose to go it alone in its China policy, without coordinating it with Germany, precisely when the German Christian-Democrats were putting the finishing touches to their own redefined Asian policy. On 26th October, Angela Merkel announced the new CDU Asian policy in a new White Paper[1]. This contains some significant changes, yet without undermining the need to have a close working partnership with China. For the Christian-Democrats, it is time to rebalance the German approach by giving proper recognition to the democratic states of the region, such as Japan, South Korea and India. The CDU believes that Berlin, blinded by the economic and trade opportunities of China’s development, has hitherto not placed enough importance on the enormous challenge to the environment represented by the emergence of China; it similarly believes that Germany has not taken seriously enough the defence of the liberal democratic model around the world or respect for the rules of the market economy which should be an integral part of the development of this new Asian power. This change of political line has already been seen in action, with Mrs Merkel receiving the Dalai Lama in Beijing on 23rd September, something that caused outrage among the Chinese rulers. Luo Shaolan analyses the CDU’s White Paper as a major comeback of ideology in Germany’s foreign policy. Nor is this wave of cooling off by Germany with regard to China confined to the Federal authorities. It runs right across the society of Europe’s most highly populated state. At the end of August, a special coverage by the weekly magazine Der Spiegel, in which it denounced systematic technological spying in Germany, orchestrated by China[2], provoked an outcry tarnishing China’s image and leading the Chinese communities to protest openly. This is seen by Luo Shaolan as a sign that the wind was changing, and that the era of harmonious relations had come to an end with the departure of Chancellor Schroeder. But while some observers foresaw a similar development in France, with a new President elected on a platform of a break with the past, who is openly pro-Atlantic and sensitive to the question of a diplomacy founded on values, nothing of the kind happened. At a time when the European Union is placing great hope in its relations with China, a divided Franco-German couple does not forebode well for the success of a common external policy in this part of the world.