China a ‘Much Greater Threat’ Than Russia, Says Former French PM in Knock on Macron’s Appeasement of Beijing

PARIS, FRANCE - APRIL 21: French presidential election candidate for the right-wing "Les R
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Kurt Zindulka

In a thinly veiled shot across the bow against Emmanuel Macron’s courting of Communist dictator Xi Jinping, former French Prime Minister François Fillon critisised the “immense hypocricy” of Western leaders treating Moscow as a greater threat than Beijing.

Appearing before the National Assembly’s Commission of Enquiry into foreign interference in the French political system on Tuesday, François Fillon warned that it was in fact the brewing Cold War with Communist China that poses a greater threat of a global conflict than Russia.

Fillon, who served as prime minister under former centre-right President Nicolas Sarkozy between 2007 and 2012, denounced the “immense hypocrisy in [the] analyses” of Western leaders that elevates the threat of Russia and downplays the danger of China.

During the hearing in which he was questioned about his previous business ties to Russian energy firms, the former PM said as opposed to Europeans, Americans is more keenly aware of the threat of China as it fears “losing world leadership” which represents “a risk of major conflict, which is the only real risk of global conflict”.

“China… is a much greater threat to our global economy and our influence in the world than the Russian threat,” Fillon said, adding: “The Chinese regime is a tougher regime than the Russian one.”

Fillon is not alone in his warnings that Europe should be wary of Commuist China, with the heads of all of Germany’s intelligence agencies warning that the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was being “naive” by falling into the same trap of over-reliance on Chinese trade as it did with Russian gas.

The comments from the former French PM come after current President Emmanuel Macron has reportedly tasked his top diplomats with working with CCP agents to attempt to craft a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow in Ukraine.

Mr Macron drew heavy critisim on both sides of the Atlantic for rhetoric seemingly intended upon appeasing the communist regime following his state visit to the country last month.

The French president said that the EU should not “follow” the United States into a war with China, should Xi Jinping launch an invasion of the democratic and independent nation of Taiwan. Perhaps more concerning for Washington, however, were his comments surrounding developing “strategic autonomy” from America, including the reliance on the dollar as a reserve currency — the dissolution of which is a chief goal of the Chinese regime.

It remains to be seen if such overtures from Macron will bear any fruit, given that Moscow has openly dismissed the idea of France brokering a peace deal given its role in supplying weapons and military hardware to Ukraine to fight Russians on the battlefield.

It is also questionable if China would be taken as a credible mediator by Western powers, particularly in light of the controversy surrounding comments made last month by the CCP’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, who questioned the status of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania arguing that there was no international agreement guaranteeing their sovereignty after they broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991 and therefore seemingly condoning a Russian attack on NATO member states.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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