LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, criticized on the left for having described Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island as a “provocation”, persisted and signed on Saturday, reusing the term and reaffirming that “there is only one only China”. In a blog post on Thursday, he also felt, in the midst of tensions between Beijing and Taipei, that “the Chinese will solve the problem between them”.
In a new post on Saturday, he says he is “spooked” by the “very strange reactions” and the “cries of outrage” of his critics, while “we must not want a new war front”. “What kind of fear reigns over the debate? Where has the active president of Franco-Chinese friendships Mr. Raffarin gone? And the signatories of the UMP’s cooperation agreement with the Chinese Communist Party? And Fabien Roussel, after his so recent friendship trip to China? The sufficiency of the first and the frightened prudence of the second dismay me”, writes Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
“There is only one China”
And to reiterate his arguments: “I have only repeated the constant doctrine of our country (France, let us remember) since 1965 with regard to China. There is only one China”, “that is also regulated by international agreements accepted by our country and members of the UN”, and “China and the USA undertake to respect the sovereignty and territorial unity of the other”. He also underlines “the super cold reception received since his provocation by Ms. Nancy Pelosi in Tokyo and Seoul”.
The ex-presidential candidate wonders if his critics “think that millennial China will bow to their posturing”, and points to a risk of seeing Beijing “enter into closer convergence with Russia” while “forming” a more homogeneous block between the USA and Europe ‘whatever the cost’ in terms of enslavement and the risk of war”. “Macron’s France has given up playing a role in this world part”, he also laments, advocating a “non-alignment” of Paris, at the heart of his vision of international relations.
While the Chinese Embassy in France thanked him in a tweet, he defends himself by republishing a sentence from his previous post: “Whatever the extent and level of criticism that may be leveled at the Chinese government, we We must refuse to condone war on China to satisfy US views on Taiwan.” Within the left alliance Nupes, the national secretary of EELV Julien Bayou had denounced Friday “a rather dated vision” and “a real cynicism in terms of geopolitics” on the part of Mr. Mélenchon, while the boss of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, judged that if “the advisability of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is debatable, the will of the Taiwanese to live in a democracy is not”.