On the Internet, the Five Permanents of the United Nations have the sayings of the upper and third permanent and the lower two permanents. The first three refer to the three countries of China, the United States and Russia, while the next two are France and Britain. In the public impression, France's strength is far lower than that of China, the United States and Russia, so how strong is France's real strength?
Economy of France
It is true that France is far inferior to the three countries of China, the United States and Russia in terms of comprehensive national strength, but it is indeed biased to put France and Britain on the same level. Unlike Britain, whose national strength is all supported by finance and services, France's national strength is actually between China, the United States, Russia and britain. Economically, France is the seventh largest economy in the world with a wide range of industries. In addition, France is also the "battery" of Europe, nuclear energy is very developed, a large number of exports of electricity to the whole of Europe.
From the perspective of economic structure, the French economy is more inclined to the real industry. The economic bias towards real industry alone is enough to widen the gap between France and Britain. After all, in recent years, the United States has been advocating the return of manufacturing, and it is clear who is good and who is bad in the real economy and financial economy.
French defense industry
In the defense industry, France can stand out for the whole of Europe. France has a relatively independent defense industry, and the defense industry is very complete. From missiles to bullets, from airplanes to tanks, France can build them. At present, there are four countries in the world with all defense industries, except for China, the United States and Russia, and the remaining one is France. With the negative impact of industrial transfer in the United Kingdom, the entire country's defense industry can be said to be completely abolished.
Britain's defence industry is either complementary to Europe or dependent on the United States, which is a rather fatal flaw in a country's defense. France is different, although there is a certain gap between France's defense industry and China, the defense industry is independent and complete enough, it is better than advanced but must rely on the defense industry of other countries. Therefore, from the perspective of the defense industry alone, France's military strength can rank fourth in the world. However, the size of the French army is small, which still has a greater impact on the French military strength.
French influence
Finally, there is international influence. International influence is France's greatest strength, and although France is small, it has a large number of colonies overseas. In addition, France has many military bases around the world, from the Pacific Ocean to North and South America, there are French military bases, which makes France the second most military bases in the world, second only to the United States. Moreover, the location of these military bases is still very good, basically in the main road of transportation.
In addition to military bases and colonies, France also had a strong ability to control the whole of North Africa. Although the French colonial empire collapsed rapidly after World War II, these North African countries were only formally independent, and their transportation, energy, agriculture, and other national lifelines were all controlled by French companies. For example, uranium mines, north Africa has a large number of high-quality uranium mines, but these uranium mines are all pinched by French companies, whether they are sold or processed, they must get the consent of the French.
For France, North Africa is about the same as its own territory, and the French government is not yet accountable to the North African region. So France seems to be a very small country, but its influence is very large.