I don't know why the ambassador said what he has said. And I am not going to speculating the reason. However, when EU top officials are already threatened to sanction China for Taiwan, why should China play nice. Too many people want China to act like a saint with impeccable perfection but give leeway to other countries to insult and demonize China.
When the US already sanctioned China from right to left from top to bottom. When EU broke diplomatic protocol by visiting Taiwan. And telling China that it is none of China's business. But somehow a few inflammatory words from an ambassador is such a big deal. Grow some skin please, China's interests have been trampled for the last few years. Now, you still care about EU nations' sensitive feeling. When did they care about China.
The problem is the Chinese belief that they can separate the EU from the US, which they largely cannot. See, Chinese strategists think in terms of rational interests, believing others to be like themselves in wanting to advance their position in the great game. They think the problem is the US, and only the US, when in fact, it hasn't played out that way.
But the US's vassals are largely content where they are. Macron is one man - he certainly doesn't represent all of France, much less the EU. Europeans will play nice with China where there is business to be done, and they'll throw in the occasional put down against the Americans - because American arrogance really is irritating - but at a base, fundamental level, Europeans identify with the West and its values. This is a cultural fact.
For this reason, no European politician can get away with pivoting to China even if it's in their best interest to do so. Their public will eat them alive for preferring "oriental tyrants" to their own. It's just not possible for European leaders to team up with China, or even stay neutral in a conflict between China and the US. Their public will demand that they defend Western values.
Since China's modern values are fundamentally incompatible with that of the West's, there's not much to realized, ultimately, in courting Europeans. Europeans will never respect or love the PRC. Not unless it became a Western democracy like them. Such being impossible, the best that China can get out of Europe is a recognition of their own weakness, because Europeans are pretty much screwed, economically. So to the extent that China can work with Europe, it will be because Europe has no choice but to continue to do business.
But never take that as an indication that Europe will therefore bow to Chinese political demands. The Europeans, despite their weakness, are too proud for that; and they'd gladly sacrifice their own interests to rage, one last time, against the dying of the light.
