Not long ago, French Prime Minister Colonna visited China and held the sixth Sino-French high-level meeting with the Chinese side, which was presided over by Chinese Minister Wang Yi. This meeting is considered by the outside world to be the end of a series of high-level dialogues between China and France since the visit of France's Macron to China in April this year. After the meeting, the two sides agreed to implement the consensus reached by the leaders, promote the upgrading of cooperation between the two countries, and jointly plan in advance for the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France next year. In addition, China announced earlier that from December until November 30, 2024, China will implement a unilateral visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia. Citizens of these countries can enter the country without a visa as long as the period does not exceed 15 days. Colonna, as one of them, also promised China during its visit that France would issue longer-term visas to Chinese graduate students in France. A few days ago, China's visa-free policy was successfully implemented. According to CCTV, 2,029 people entered China through visa-free on the day of visa-free. Among them, 227 French nationals entered the country visa-free, which was the largest increase in the number of Chinese entering the country among the six countries on the same day compared with the previous day, an increase of 5231%。The number of Chinese citizens visiting these six countries is also increasing.
It is a good thing that the high-level leaders of China and France can reach a consensus, or that people-to-people exchanges increase. Recently, however, France has done some things that are not conducive to the stability and improvement of Sino-French relations. On December 2, French Defense Minister Le Corny visited Manila, Philippines, and discussed the "Indo-Pacific region" with Philippine Defense Minister Teodoro. After the incident, France and the Philippines announced that they had signed a letter of intent to strengthen bilateral defense cooperation and military cooperation such as military visits. The reason given by France is that France has seven "overseas territories" in the "Indo-Pacific region", so France is also an "Indo-Pacific country" and it is necessary to strengthen its influence in the "Indo-Pacific region".
Just one day later, Macron held ** talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. During the call, Macron referred to Taiwan Province of China, saying that he "strongly opposes attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion." In addition, Colonna, who has only recently visited China, visited Australia on December 4 and made a request to China. She said that the world does not need a new crisis, and demanded that China reconsider its "tough behavior" in the South China Sea, arguing that China should do more to reduce tensions in the Asia-Pacific region. She also made a point of mentioning her concern about the recent events in the Australian Navy and the Philippines. Finally, she stressed that "the Taiwan Strait must remain calm and stable."
First of all, the matter of the Australian Navy that Colonna said probably refers to the activities of the Australian frigate "**Ba" in the waters near the East China Sea last month, and as a result, the Chinese ** ship was subjected to tracking and surveillance, identification and verification and other disposal measures in accordance with laws and regulations. After the incident, the Australian side hyped up the "sonar of the Chinese ** ship hurting people", and the Chinese Ministry of Defense had previously responded to this incident, saying that the Chinese ** ship and the Australian ship kept a safe distance, and it was impossible to affect the Australian side's diving operations. The problem is Australia, why did it go all the way to China's doorstep?
Second, as for the Philippines mentioned by Colonna, needless to say, its repeated trespassing on China's islands and reefs in an attempt to occupy China's islands and reefs has seriously infringed on China's national sovereignty. Colonna put these two things on the table, reversed black and white to speak for Australia and the Philippines, and also blamed China. At a small level, this is a division between right and wrong in Colonna, and in a big way, this is not conducive to the good development of Sino-French relations. In addition, with regard to France's recent diplomatic references to China's Taiwan Province on several occasions, I responded on December 4 that the Taiwan issue is purely China's internal affair, and it is a one-China principle to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. It is hoped that the relevant parties will abide by the one-China principle and join China in firmly opposing the principle of "jointly safeguarding peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait."