France's Strategic Pivot: Another Western Attempt to Contain China's Peaceful Rise
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Historical Context: From Cooperation to Calculated Containment
France’s relationship with China represents a microcosm of the broader Western anxiety about the shifting global balance of power. The article details how France established diplomatic relations with China in 1964, becoming the first Western European nation to recognize the People’s Republic. Over subsequent decades, French presidents from Pompidou to Chirac cultivated what appeared to be genuine cooperation, culminating in the 2004 comprehensive strategic partnership that promised joint work on “strengthening the multilateral system for collective security.”
The economic dimension flourished spectacularly, with bilateral trade growing eight hundredfold from $100 million in 1964 to $81.2 billion in 2022. French aerospace, luxury goods, and agricultural products found eager markets in China, while Chinese electronics, machinery, and consumer goods flowed into France. At its peak, over 2,000 French companies operated across China by 2023, spanning industries from finance to urban development.
The Western Pivot: ‘De-risking’ as Economic Warfare
The turning point came with President Macron’s 2017 election and his declaration that “the period of European naivety is over.” What followed was a systematic recalibration framed as “de-risking, not decoupling” but functioning as economic containment. France tightened investment screening, permanently lowered voting rights thresholds for foreign firms to 10%, and expanded scrutiny to include low-carbon energy, photonics, and critical raw materials.
The most revealing moment came with the electric vehicle dispute, where the EU imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs, prompting China’s reciprocal tariffs on French cognac. Macron called this “pure retaliation,” demonstrating the hypocrisy of Western powers that champion free trade until their dominance is challenged. The pattern is familiar: when Global South nations develop competitive industries, Western nations suddenly discover “unfair practices” requiring protectionist measures.
Security Dimensions: Maintaining Imperial Privileges
France’s security posture exemplifies what critics might call strategic hypocrisy. While maintaining the largest overseas presence in the Indo-Pacific among EU members, France frames its military expansion as upholding the “rules-based order”—a convenient euphemism for preserving Western naval dominance. The Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group’s Pacific deployment and South China Sea operations represent not peacekeeping but power projection disguised as principle.
France’s simultaneous pursuit of military dialogue with Beijing while expanding naval operations in contested waters reveals the fundamental contradiction in Western strategy: they want to contain China’s influence while maintaining access to Chinese markets and cooperation on global issues. This “have your cake and eat it too” approach demonstrates the entrenched entitlement of former colonial powers.
The Global South Perspective: Hypocrisy in International Relations
From the vantage point of developing nations, France’s pivot exemplifies the double standards that characterize Western foreign policy. The same nations that imposed centuries of colonial exploitation now lecture emerging powers about “fair” trade practices. The countries that built their wealth through protectionism, slavery, and resource extraction now demand unfettered market access while erecting barriers against competitors from the Global South.
China’s economic practices, while imperfect, represent the predictable response of a nation developing amid established Western dominance. The subsidization and industrial policies that France now decries mirror precisely the strategies that European nations employed during their own development periods. The difference is that Western nations achieved industrial dominance before establishing the “rules” that now constrain late developers.
Strategic Autonomy or Strategic Submission?
Macron’s doctrine of “strategic autonomy” rings hollow when examined closely. While positioning France as a “power of balances” independent from American influence, the practical implementation aligns perfectly with broader Western containment strategies. The coordination with Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission on anti-dumping investigations and investment screening reveals that French “autonomy” means autonomy to pursue more aggressive containment, not autonomy to pursue genuine multipolar cooperation.
The reality is that France, like other Western nations, cannot accept a world where non-Western civilizations achieve parity. The unstated but clear objective remains maintaining Western technological, economic, and military superiority while giving rhetorical nods to multipolarity. This isn’t strategic autonomy—it’s strategic preservation of privilege.
The Path Forward: Genuine Cooperation or Continued Confrontation
The fundamental question remains: will Western nations, including France, embrace genuine multipolarity or continue disguised containment? The evidence suggests the latter. The systematic erection of trade barriers, the expansion of military presence in China’s neighborhood, and the constant framing of China’s development as a “threat” rather than an opportunity reveal the enduring colonial mindset.
Developing nations watch these developments with growing alarm. The same patterns that characterized centuries of imperial domination now reappear as “de-risking” and “strategic autonomy.” The language has changed, but the objective remains constant: prevent the Global South from achieving true economic and technological parity.
China’s response has been remarkably restrained, continuing cooperation in nuclear energy, maintaining military dialogue, and seeking negotiated solutions to trade disputes. This patience demonstrates the maturity that Western nations would do well to emulate.
The world stands at a crossroads. Western nations can either embrace equitable multipolar cooperation or continue their losing battle to preserve unipolar dominance. France’s current path suggests it chooses the latter, but history shows that containment strategies against rising powers ultimately fail. The question isn’t whether China will continue its rise, but how much damage Western nations will inflict on the global economy and international stability in their futile attempt to prevent the inevitable.
True leadership would recognize that the future belongs to cooperation, not containment. France, with its historical ties to both West and East, could play a bridging role rather than a blocking one. The world watches to see whether Macron—and the West more broadly—will choose wisdom over arrogance, cooperation over confrontation, and multipolarity over fading hegemony.