Sacre Bleu. France is planning joint Naval exercises with China off the coast of Taiwan, right before the Taiwanese hold some elections of their own. What the heck is this all about. Has France taken a lesson from the attacks on Spain and decided to try and influence some of their own? Since the U.S. has stated that it would militarily protect Taiwan from the Chinese if they attacked, are the French taking further steps to actually becoming an enemy of the United States?
The stated purpose is, of course, to strengthen economic ties with China. But the timing is very curious.