Editorials
The sun shines again
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-22 07:50
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The sun is shining again over China-France relations after a succession of "rainy days" in 2008.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon's three-day visit to China offered a good review of the bilateral relations this year. Still, it heralds the beginning of a more meaningful relationship next year and beyond.
Fillon's delegation, which consisted of 20 some chief executives, inked deals worth of billions of euros with Chinese companies. More importantly, the French prime minister was in Beijing to deliberate French President Nicolas Sarkozy's presence at the Shanghai Expo and President Hu Jintao's possible visit to France next year.
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The China-France relationship is back on track, moving at TGV speed, as France has begun to know that it should keep its hands off other countries' internal affairs. France began to listen to China - the two countries should properly handle their differences and the sensitive issues on the basis of respect for each other's core interests.
The sun appeared in April when Hu and Sarkozy agreed to push forward political mutual trust and move the bilateral partnership to healthy and stable development.
After relations were frozen for a year, the two leaders met twice this year. They have found a spate of broad and important things their countries share. They reached consensus on how important, strategic, pragmatic and broad the China-France relationship is.
High profile Chinese and French politicians were busy mending bilateral ties. They visited each other's countries frequently this year, putting the political and economic fronts of the relationship back on track.
Still, the two countries are expecting more from their relations next year.
Chinese Ambassador to France Kong Quan called the China-France relationship "a river with an enormous expanse of roaring waves". The figure of speech shows where the bilateral relations came from and should head for.
China and France do not have geopolitical conflicts. They sit at the United Nations Security Council and agree on multilateralism to deal with the challenges the world faces today. The common or similar viewpoints they share on important international affairs should lay a solid ground for the strategic cooperation between the two countries.
However, it is unrealistic to expect that the sun will always ride high in the sky for China-France relations. The two countries are widely divided on many issues, such as climate change. When Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel call for a carbon tax on imports, they have emerging markets like China and India in mind.
The French government should not let these differences change the course of the river.
(China Daily 12/22/2009 page8)
