A defense strategy report published by the French government has highlighted security risks posed by Russia and China, while noting the latter’s increasingly “assertive” efforts to change the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait.
The 2022 National Strategic Review, which outlines the expected status of France’s defense in 2030, was released on Wednesday by the French Secretariat-General for National Defense and Security.
In a section titled “Crystalization of the Main Antagonisms,” the report says that Russia is “pursuing a strategy that seeks to undermine European security,” most obviously with its invasion of Ukraine, but indirectly during the years leading up to the conflict.
Photo: screen grab from a Ministry of Foreign Affairs livestream
The report leads by saying that the goal of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is to “supplant the United States as the world’s leading superpower.”
Underpinning this goal is the belief that US power and the Western model of governance are in decline, it said.
As a result, China is aiming to utilize its “new influence” to weaken Western leadership, the report added.
“The CCP is therefore banking on the passivity of a majority of non-Western countries over the war in Ukraine to fuel a discourse that portrays an opposition based on ‘the West against the rest,’” it said.
China’s military modernization has allowed it to pursue an “assertive” strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, “particularly with regard to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait,” it said.
It also expresses concern about the growing “strategic convergence” between China and Russia, while saying that the Ukraine crisis could tilt an imbalance in relations sharply in Beijing’s favor.
This could have “enormous” implications for global governance, it added.
Beijing is likely examining Western cohesion and the effect of sanctions against Russia for insight into methods that could be used against it in the event of a major crisis, the report said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that the report’s reference to peace and security in the Taiwan Strait demonstrated the French government’s resolute support for Taiwan, adding that it also highlighted a broad consensus around the issue within the international community.
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