Macron comments leave senior Taiwanese official ‘puzzled’

Comments by French President Emmanuel Macron on Taiwan are puzzling, a senior Taiwanese politician said, wondering whether France’s founding ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity are now out of fashion.
Macron, in comments in an interview on a trip to China that was meant to showcase European unity on China policy, cautioned against being drawn into a crisis over Taiwan driven by an “American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction”.
He also called for the European Union to reduce its dependence on the United States and to become a “third pole” in world affairs alongside Washington and Beijing.
Taiwan parliament speaker You Si-kun, writing on Facebook late Tuesday above a screengrab of a report about Macron’s comments on Taiwan, questioned the French commitment to freedom.