China-France: 53 years and more...

By Hervé de Tréglodé

In a few days' time, the President of the French Republic will visit China. It is the start of another page in the long and rich history between China and France, two countries at each end of Eurasia.

Fifty-three years ago, on January 27, 1964, China and France established diplomatic relations, despite the objections from many other countries. France was building her new destiny: Independent and European. With immense effort and courage, China was preparing for the most unimaginable political and economic resurrection.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua]

Each partner is governed by its own particular political order, and each considers its own order above any other, but this difference does not hinder the cooperation or trust between these two nations. Collaboration between the two nations already spans almost every subject of human activity. 

Yet progress could develop even faster, so where are the challenges?

In Paris, what do I see? There are many French who know quite well China and the Chinese. They are, for the most part, in favor of the rapid extension of the commerce of ideas and goods between the two countries in all ways. Though success in their personal business has not always been tranquil, the friendship they have forged with the Chinese people over the years often strengthens their admiration for the new Middle Kingdom

However, there are many French who still consider China as a mysterious and even threatening power. Their misunderstanding is supported by the mainstream media. Too often journalists repeat, over the decades, the same clichés about the Chinese government and people. They don't actually show the true progress occurring in China; sometimes still insufficient, but other times dazzling. But even here, the French mindset is changing. The growing Chinese community in France, already the largest in Europe, is helping this transformation.

China will soon be at the forefront in all key areas, such as biotechnology, green economy and artificial intelligence. The world has already been surprised by her amazing scientific and industrial accomplishments, and the French are not left out, far from it, the fields of Sino-French collaboration are countless! Could anyone successfully cultivate his land by building embankments and digging ditches? No! In economics, to lock oneself in is to lose oneself.

Now let's look at the nearly unbelievable project of the new silk routes by sea and land.

In 166 CE at Luoyang, Henan Province, Emperor Huandi of the Han Dynasty welcomed a delegation probably sent by the Roman Emperor himself. It was perhaps the first official relationship between the two leading empires of the world, the first and last embassy before the fall of Rome in 410 CE.

In 166 other well-armed peoples prevented the land passage from east to west. Had intercontinental trade been then possible, would the two emperors have hesitated for a moment to sign a commercial treaty? Certainly not! Would it have not ensued great economic, political, human, even ethical upheavals? Certainly yes!

Today, the descendants of these intermediate populations have a quite different vision of prosperity. They applaud loudly for the "Belt and Road Initiative".

In terms of this ambition, the greatest ever forged by humans, many politicians and senior officials in Europe are afraid. Often are they under the influence of the American establishment, who fear the Eurasian project will succeed without or against them. Trained in the old way, too many Western geo-politicians still look at national aspirations as the pure will to conquer more lands, and nothing else. If powerful, they wrongly say, any country will eventually have no other intention than to push forward its borders: a likely geographic, cultural or political colonization. China has another purpose: building a new Eurasian economic ecosystem, already considered as a generous project by the great German philosopher Leibniz in 1697.

More and more believe in the project. Less and less play the Cassandra in Europe. With the arrival of ships in the port of Piraeus (Greece) and the trains in the marshalling yard of Duisburg (Germany), the fever of enthusiasm is gradually spreading all over the European Union. Of course enthusiasm does not dispense with prudence. There is no strong economy without wise and rational behavior.

(Hervé de Tréglodé is a senior engineer and transportation expert in Paris, France.The present article expresses the personal opinions of the author.)