Diplomat

source: Le Figaro

author: Alexandre Devechio

translation: GoolgeTranslate/doxa-louise

François Heisbourg: "China is a predator and Europe is its prey"

 INTERVIEW - In  Le Temps des Predateurs (Odile Jacob), François Heisbourg analyzes in detail the rise in commercial, industrial, financial, but also ideological and political power of China. After the coronavirus crisis, he predicted a regional, even global, expansionist drift on the part of the Middle Kingdom.

You describe China as a "superpower". Although it is responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, can it emerge victorious from the crisis?

China has recently become a superpower. This is seen in its ability to influence events but also in its great clumsiness in managing crises. It is a profession in which it is not yet comfortable compared to the Soviets, the Americans and the British who had mastered it by the time of their empire. This results in an unbearable and disastrous management of what has been called "mask diplomacy". In general, the Chinese find it difficult to don the costume. On whether they emerge victorious from the crisis, I cannot yet say . First, because politics is not a horse race. But also and above all because the impact of the Covid-19 geostrategically is not yet measurable. What we do know is ...

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