Trump can learn lessons from European leaders
When hearing US president-elect Donald Trump's recent irritating rhetoric on China, former French premier Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a veteran politician, was reminded of something similar in Europe not too long ago. It involved Nicolas Sarkozy, who served as French president from 2007 to 2012.
At the beginning of his presidency, Sarkozy challenged China's core interests by supporting Tibetan separatists and meeting the Dalai Lama. China reacted by canceling the EU-China summit and, in the depth of the global financial crisis, former premier Wen Jiabao pointedly excluded France during a European tour in early 2009, on his way to the annual Davos World Economic Forum.
It was Raffarin who brought China and France closer after Sarkozy's troubling moves. In a recent interview, Raffarin said Sarkozy went from being "unpredictable to predictable" and Trump is experiencing a similar kind of growth.
