Port 80

I have never been a particular fan of France’s foreign policy. However, the latest display of Gallic gall is utterly breathtaking.

BEIJING, March 16 (Reuters) - China and France held joint naval exercises for the first time on Tuesday, four days before Beijing’s rival, Taiwan, holds presidential elections.

Chinese and French helicopters landed on board each other’s warships off the mainland’s eastern coast in what China’s Xinhua news agency called the “largest-scale joint drill held by Chinese and foreign navies”. …

French President Jacques Chirac, keen to strengthen ties with China and win French business a firm footing in the rapidly growing market, sided with China in January in opposing Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian’s plan to hold a referendum on missile defence alongside presidential elections on March 20.

Let me restate that, just so the facts are on the table: A Western democracy has just used its military to intimidate another democratic nation in support of a Communist dictatorship. This follows on the heels of Chirac’s statement in January that any referendum that changed the status quo would be “irresponsible.” This is what “Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood” has come to: a declaration that it is irresponsible for a nation to decide, through a free election, that it doesn’t wish to be part of a dictatorship with expansionist tendencies and no respect for human rights.

I wish I could say that this was unprecedented behavior from the French, or from any other Western democracy. Unfortunately, the Czechs learned in 1938 what happens to small nations when the French begin negotiating with dictators over your fate. Let us hope that the French come to their senses and recall the events of the 1940s before they start working to translate the Munich Pact into Chinese.

Update

Wretchard over at the Belmont Club is drawing the same analogy, but with regards to the Spanish election, not France. Isn’t it wonderful how countless members of the blogosphere can read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and figure out that appeasement fails, but much of the population of Europe cannot? Spain and France were both ruled by Fascists not to long ago — it would behoove them to examine how exactly dictators operate. (And, in all fairness, some of the Spanish get it, but many do not.)

3/21/2004: Updated again to fix a typo and to improve the accuracy of my reference to Chirac’s statement on the “irresponsible” nature of the Taiwanese referendum.

My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time…
Go home and get a nice quiet sleep. — Neville Chamberlain, 30 September 1938