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FriedButter

FriedButter

Brigadier
Registered Member
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France's Macron threatens China with tariffs over trade surplus - Les Echos​

PARIS, Dec 7 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said he had threatened Beijing with tariffs during his state visit to China if there was no action taken to reduce the country's ever-widening trade deficit with the European Union.

During Macron's visit earlier in December, he urged China to boost cooperation on "unsustainable" global trade imbalances, geopolitics and the environment.

"I tried to explain to the Chinese that their trade surplus is unsustainable because they are killing their own customers, particularly by no longer importing much from us," Macron said in an interview published on Sunday by French daily Les Echos.

"I told them that if they do not react, we Europeans would be forced, in the coming months, to take strong measures following the example of the United States, such as imposing tariffs on Chinese products," he added.

The EU's goods trade deficit with China has ballooned by nearly 60% since 2019, while France's trade balance with the $19 trillion economy continues to widen.

Macron has in the past sought to project a robust European front in dealing with China, pushing Brussels to deploy protectionist countermeasures to slow the arrival of Chinese goods hammering European industry.

Macron told Les Echos that the European industry was in a tough position, caught between U.S. President Donald Trump's protectionism and China, which "is hitting the heart of the European industrial and innovation model".

"Today, we are caught between the two and it is a matter of life or death for the European industry. We have become the adjustment market and this is the worst-case scenario," he added.

Macron also said he was proposing a more conciliatory approach towards China, such as the dismantling of restrictions on exports of semiconductor machinery on the European side and limitations on exports of rare earths on the Chinese side.

Macron called on Chinese companies to invest in Europe and to "create value and opportunities for Europe".
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Macron called on Chinese companies to invest in Europe and to "create value and opportunities for Europe".
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"I told them that if they do not react, we Europeans would be forced, in the coming months, to take strong measures following the example of the United States, such as imposing tariffs on Chinese products," he added.
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Little napoleon is demanding that China give them billions in tribute. Obviously because Project Ukraine is imploding and the cheap Russian energy will no longer flow to Europe. Thus rendering Europe as a non competitive industry. They wanted to balkanized Russia and directly control their natural resources and it has backfired badly.

I bet they want to play the Nexperia playbook again. China must invest hundreds of billions, transfer all their technology, and when everything is built. It is now a national security threat and therefore the investments, technology, and IP will be seized and redistributed among their European Elites.
 
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Iracundus

Junior Member
Registered Member
Thecore said:
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There is a fundamental misunderstanding on China’s part as to what they think a state visit is for and what westerners think it’s for. To China, these visits are typically thought of as reinforcing and expanding relationships and friendships with other countries. An opportunity to bond. For westerners, these visits are only pomp and circumstance to demonstrate their own importance in front of their own populace and the rest of the world and maybe and opportunity to enact or pry out some kind of advantage whilst in the host country. Parasitic thinking. Should China start considering more the perspective of who they are dealing with and adjusting more instead of trying to push through “win-win” type offers that will always get taken advantage of and never reciprocated?
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It is also facepalm stupidity that French/European negotiating position is still the imperious: Give me what I want and I'll stop punishing you. If you don't give me what I want, I will punish you.

Nowhere in there is there any offer of giving anything that is a net positive. At most they offer a return to the status quo of no restrictions on semiconductor machinery but in return for major concessions from China. That is a terrible deal and to even offer this is being disingenuous or stupid.
 
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HereToSeePics

Just Hatched
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
Registered Member
Let the OSINT commercial satellite imaging wars begin (as US and Chinese commercial sat providers release more photos try to one up the other on resolution)

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U.S. satellite company Vantor just showed off its satellite imaging capabilities by sharing highly detailed images of the Yulin Naval Base on Hainan Island, the southernmost point of China. The company posted the highly detailed photographs on
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, which claims a 50cm (around 20 inches) resolution and a sub-4-meter (less than 14 feet) spatial accuracy. More importantly, this was achieved with only a single satellite pass and was processed in under 10 hours.
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https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1997024295097086324
 
AssassinsMace

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General

Absolutely fascinating and of course not surprising. The British make excuses for their crimes of the past because everyone else essentially committed some crime too. For example here because Mao killed so many Chinese, that made what the British did with the Opium Wars not significant and no one should bother.

This is the reason why the West fears China’s rise. Not because of economic or military might or fear China might act irresponsibly. It’s the interpretation of reality that they fear most. Just like the West being today’s power is using it watering down their crimes, they fear China in the future might use it to declare the truth of how evil theirs are. Just look at how the West paints China as evil just in hopes the world turns away from China so it doesn’t get that power. Their fear China will force them to give reparations or else they’ll get punished.

So many spins and excuses the West makes for themselves can be easily turned right back at them. Whataboutism… Two wrongs don’t make right… everything they complain about, they use themselves and vice versa.
 
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