Emmanuel Macron’s pronouncements that Europe should avoid “getting caught up in crises that are not ours,” on his return from visiting Xi Jinping in Beijing, has set off a furore in transatlantic policy circles louder than Chinese battle drills in the Straits of Taiwan. Europe, he said, should not automatically be “followers” of Washington. With Beijing wrapping up exercises which included its jets and warships simulating dogfights, strikes and a blockade of the breakaway island democracy 110 miles off its coast, few had any doubts about which flashpoint he was talking about.
Tensions are steadily rising between the US and China. Twice President Biden has been directly asked if the US would defend the 23 million strong nation and twice answered, unanimously, “yes.”
