Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron visited China, and China and France issued a joint statement. The fourth point of the first major point involves military diplomacy and dialogue between China and France, which is enough to attract great attention from the outside world. With the issuance of the Sino-French Joint Statement, in the South Pacific direction, the exchanges and interactions between the Chinese and French militaries are forming a line. It can be said that for the "Indo-Pacific strategy" of the United States, China has found the key to breaking the situation.
China and France issued a joint statement
According to the information released by the Chinese side, the Sino-French joint statement said that the two sides agreed to conduct more in-depth exchanges on strategic issues, especially the dialogue between the PLA Southern Theater and the French military in the Pacific Sea Zone, to strengthen mutual understanding between China and France on international and regional security issues.
When it comes to Sino-French relations, the outside world thinks more of economic and trade cooperation, people-to-people exchanges and political dialogue, but it is really rare to see the relationship between the Chinese and French militaries. After all, France is not only a Western country, but also located in Europe, quite far from the Asia-Pacific region. From this point of view, it seems that the Chinese and French militaries do not have much room for communication. But this is not the case, China and France actually have a lot of space for dialogue and even cooperation in the military field.
The specific content of the Sino-French Joint Statement
On the one hand, the technical source of some of China's military equipment and weapons is France, such as the well-known Zhi-8 and Z-9 series helicopters in the mainland. The former is borrowed from the French SA321 Super Wasp helicopter, while the latter is derived from the AS 365 Dolphin helicopter. So far. The Z-8 and Z-9 have derived a considerable number of models and have become the backbone of continental helicopters, occupying an important position in the civil and defense fields of the mainland.
On the other hand, although France is located in Europe, it actually has many interests in the Asia-Pacific region for historical reasons, such as its three overseas territories in the South Pacific. These are French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna. Therefore, France actually has some activities in the South Pacific, and the French army naturally has to be dispatched to protect French interests here.
French Polynesia
It can be seen that there is actually a lot of room for Sino-French military-level exchanges in the South Pacific direction. Not only that, the layout of China and France connected into a line can also allow China to find a breakthrough in the "Indo-Pacific strategy" of the United States.
The United States and Australia have been paranoid about China's normal activities in the South Pacific, which they see as the backyard of the Anglo-Saxon states, and the United States sees the South Pacific region as a key part of its Indo-Pacific strategy. The South Pacific region is not only an important transit point for crossing the entire Pacific Ocean to the US mainland, but also has the US military's intercontinental missile range and nuclear test site, and its geographical location is very important.
The United States regularly conducts weapons tests in the South Pacific region
At the same time, the United States is building Australia into a key forward base for the "Indo-Pacific strategy". Today, the U.S. military believes that the first island chain and the Guam base are no longer safe enough, because these places are within the range of the PLA's "Dongfeng" missiles, so it imagines turning Australia into the closest "forward fortress" to the western Pacific region, as it did during World War II. To this end, in order to ensure the security of Australia's surrounding areas, the United States needs to join hands with Australia and New Zealand to prevent China from further developing relations with the South Pacific island countries.
In fact, the "Indo-Pacific strategy" of the United States is a huge encirclement against China, trying to continue to compress China's development space like the island chain strategy previously proposed, while forming layer after layer of blockade chain in the military. Now, China has reached an agreement with the West countries that are rare in the South Pacific without Anglo-Saxon countries, and the Chinese and French militaries will carry out in-depth dialogue and communication in the region, which is in fact France's recognition of the normal activities of China and the Chinese military in the South Pacific region. This shows that China has found a key to breaking the "Indo-Pacific strategy".
French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle
Not only that, judging from several points in the joint statements such as "China and France will continue the mechanism for annual meetings between the two heads of state" and "China and France reaffirm their willingness to promote the continuous development of a close and lasting Sino-French comprehensive strategic partnership on the basis of mutual respect for each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity and major interests", they are the same as the dialogue mechanism established by the Chinese and French militaries on the Pacific Sea area, reflecting the special features of Sino-French relations and a rare breakthrough that China has found in the process of dealing with Western countries.
The key to China and France being able to reach so much strategic consensus this time is that France has the most prominent autonomy in the EU and the Western camp. It is precisely because of this autonomy that China and France have been able to reach so much consensus this time. And that's what we'd like to see as we push for global multipolarity.