Macron sets good example with visit

"From Beijing to Guangzhou, I have met students who are learning our language, enthusiastic and dynamic young people, entrepreneurs keen to innovate, and artists inspired by France. There is so much for us to do together. Long live the friendship between China and France!" This is what French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted on Friday, the day he concluded his third visit to China since taking office.

For too long, the Chinese people have not seen a Western leader demonstrating the courage and ability to ignore Washington's either-China-or-us choice while dealing with relations with Beijing. That explains why Macron's three-day state visit to China has attracted so much attention. During his trip, both sides revealed to the world how much the two major countries can do together as long as they uphold their strategic autonomy.

After being smeared in ideology and contained in the high-tech sector for so long, the sincerity and respect Macron has displayed to the Chinese people was a welcome change. It undoubtedly served to consolidate the Chinese side's confidence that so long as it does its own business well, it can respond to the United States' anti-China practices with self-assurance.

The wide scope the joint statement Beijing and Paris issued on Friday wrapping up Macron's visit, which covers exchanges and cooperation in technology, the economy, trade and culture, indicates that Washington's attempts to portray China as a threat and to isolate it from the world cannot even win over its long-time ally.

It is the great achievements the two countries have made in socioeconomic development, the big contributions they have made to world peace and stability and their unyielding adherence to independence of action that have ensured the stability of Sino-French relations since the 1960s.

Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. It is believed that under the guidance of the two heads of state, China-France relations will be elevated to a new level and bring a new atmosphere to the development of China-European Union relations. The more common ground France and Europe share with China, the more stability and certainty the world will enjoy.