A sharp reaction in Washington was provoked by the comments of French President Emmanuel Macron, who argues that Europe should fight for strategic autonomy and warns of an aggravation of the conflict between the two poles represented by the United States and China.

“The worst would be to think that we Europeans should follow the ‘Taiwan issue’ and adapt to the American pace or China’s overreaction,” the French president said in an interview on Friday during his visit to China and before the start of Chinese military exercises surrounded by Taiwan.

On this GOP fact, many MPs and senators have attacked both Macron and Joe Biden, who is trying to downplay the comments. “We will let the Champs Elysées speak for President Macron’s comments – we are focused on the amazing cooperation and coordination we have with France as an ally and friend,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

“Chinese state media responded with glee,” Politico reported. Macron’s statement “signals that the US strategy to encourage Europe to contain China has reached an impasse,” the Beijing-based tabloid Global Times said on Monday.

“The Chinese Communist Party is the biggest challenge to Western society, our economic security and our way of life…France must take a clear stand on this threat,” said Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Macron’s remarks “were embarrassing, they were embarrassing … and very geopolitically naive,” Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin), chairman of the House Committee on China, told Fox News on Monday. The French president’s views “are heartbreaking because the Chinese Communist Party’s threat to Taiwan is a growing threat to the global balance of power,” said Michael McCall (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Some GOP lawmakers have called for a reassessment of US-French relations. “If France is truly determined to abandon democracies in favor of a brutal communist regime, the United States should reconsider its attitude towards France,” said Rep. Chris Smith (RN.J.), chairman of the Congressional Executive Committee. . He called Macron’s statement “an obvious betrayal of democratic Taiwan.”

Others saw a double standard in France’s support for US efforts to protect Ukraine, Politico notes. “Macron wants the US to save Europe from Russian aggression but is apparently taking an oath of neutrality against Chinese aggression in the Pacific,” Texas Senator John Cornyn tweeted Monday.

Source: Politico, AP.