According to this Reuters story, France is joining China in intimidating Taiwan (via Instapundit):
China and France will hold rare joint naval exercises off the mainland’s eastern coast on Tuesday, just four days before Beijing’s rival, Taiwan, holds presidential elections.
China’s official Xinhua news agency made no link between the exercises off Qingdao — about 780 miles from Taiwan’s northernmost point — and the election.
But the show of military strength and solidarity signaled China’s desire to isolate the self-governing island before the vote and its first-ever referendum, which Beijing views as a provocative step toward independence.
“It’s the biggest in scale and the most substantial in content of an exercise between the Chinese navy and a foreign navy,” Xinhua said on Monday, quoting Ju Xinchun, the captain of the destroyer “Harbin.”
“Through this joint exercise, we hope to learn the French navy’s combat training experience and combat thought,” Ju was quoted as saying.
This is extraordinarily cynical even by Chirac’s low standards: the French trying to ingratiate themselves with the Chinese (after earlier fawnings in Paris) by helping them in their battle with democratic Taiwan, thereby ramping up the pressure towards open conflict. Nevermind: France’s two main foreign policy objectives, of increasing their own presence on the world stage, and embarrassing the US, are well served.
Mick Hartley 
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