The National Desk, April 2023
French President Emmanuel Macron has created some tension with the U.S. after a trip to China, where he tried to assert his country’s independence from U.S.-led foreign policy views when it comes to dealing with Beijing.
Macron went to China for a three-day trip, where he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and called on Europe to develop its own stance for dealing with heightened tensions between China and Taiwan. The purpose of the trip was to push China to limit its support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
It wasn’t the first time Macron tried to use diplomacy to curtail the war in Ukraine. In the weeks leading up to the invasion, Macron traveled to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and tried to persuade him not to send the thousands of troops built up along the border into its neighboring country, an effort that fell short.
