France Supports Preemptive War. Just Not Where You'd Think.

Okay, so maybe it's exactly where you'd think:

During a state visit to China, French Premier Raffarin threw support behind a law allowing China to attack Taiwan and continued to push for a lift of the EU arms embargo.

At the outset of a three-day visit to China, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said he supported Beijing's "anti-secession" law on Taiwan, and vowed to keep pushing for an end to an EU arms embargo that could open the door for Paris to sell weapons to the Asian giant.

Raffarin also signed or finalized major business deals with Beijing valued at around $3.2 billion (2.4 billion euros).

Appearing to put his government at odds with the European Union, Raffarin said at the outset of the three day visit that Paris had no objections to the anti-secession law.

Among the deals is a commitment by Beijing to buy $500 Million to $600 Million worth of planes from Airbus.

This may signal another move in the realigning of alliances around the globe. France is making noise that the US should keep its nose out of EU-China relations just at the time when the Bush Administration is considering referring North Korea to the UN Security Council and reforms calling for the expansion of the UNSC begin to draw some attention. With this coming on the heels of the recent Chinese saber-rattling towards Taiwan, there can be no doubt where France's allegiance would lie in the event of a Chinese-American confrontation.

This can be construed quite easily as a French salvo aimed directly at the US-Taiwan relationship and the US's strategic role in the region and at the UN.

[Raffarin] also said the two countries share similar views on international affairs, favoring solving international disputes through peaceful means and multilateral actions and respecting the diversity of cultures and development models of other countries.

To safeguard peace and promote development, France and China maintain good cooperation at the UN Security Council, taking concerted moves over the issues of Iraq, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Iran, he said.

This would actually be more troubling if the French people were not leaning toward rejecting the EU constitution. An enlarged and cohesive EU, dominated by France, would upset traditional balances of power even further and cause the US all sorts of headaches. But if the constitution fails, France will be back in its box and the Administration is more likely to see French-Chinese relations as tolerably intolerable.
 

Comments

[Miguel A. Alarcon]

France will plan to embarog both the United States and South Korea and for others in the European Union if they bring any South Korean product or a product made by a SOuth Korean company will be illegal in France and that person will arrested in France for bringing a South Korean made car in France and even an American branded car in France or an American car, as for that American products and South Korean products are not allowed in France because they will be illegal.

As for that the French will buy North Korean products because North Korea will soon become France's number one exporter and importer and in the United States will not going to see any French wines and prefumes because France sets an embarog on the United States and North Korea will be the only Korea to purchase French wine and perfumes and other French products while South Korea will only get products form other countries instead of France and instaed of SOuth Koreans purchaseing French wine and perfume they will only get from Italy, Spain and California.
THats how it France will block imports from UNited States and South Korea just like the United States did on Cuba.
As like I am saying North Korea will provide for France and you will soon purchase North Korean products in France one of those days.

Miguel