Deepening relations with China "the only reasonable choice" for Europe, says French expert

French scholar Bruno Guigue is pictured at his home in France's overseas island La Reunion, Sept. 23, 2022. (Xinhua)

Amid the energy crisis and soaring inflation, Europe needs even closer cooperation with China, Guigue said. "Whether in terms of trade, technology advances, or grand infrastructure projects, it (China) will have to be reckoned with."

PARIS, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- "The reality should teach the Europeans that, by following the United States, they are not defending their own interests," French international affairs expert Bruno Guigue has said, noting that deepening relations with China is "the only reasonable choice" of Europe.

Certain American politicians insist that the United States should "decouple" from China, it is because Washington's foreign policy is dominated by the geopolitical anxiety of the American leaders over China's success, Guigue told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"Instead of following the Americans' policy, the Europeans should therefore free themselves from it... For Europe, the only reasonable choice is to deepen its political, economic, and cultural relations with China," he stressed.

For Guigue, China will not only become a leading power of the world, but also a peaceful power with whom Europe will gain advantages by cooperating with it.

The contamination of Europe by Washington's unilateralism has "unfortunately" created an unprecedented situation, he said.

"But this (American) privilege will not last forever. The crisis in Ukraine has deepened the distrust of many countries towards Washington after the illegal seizure of Russia's assets," he noted.

A staff member hangs a U.S. national flag before U.S. President Joe Biden arrives for the European Council meeting in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

Guigue stressed that "China is not a danger to the Europeans, it is not a threat hanging over their heads, and it is not a 'systemic rival'."

China's participation "with success" in global economic competition does not seek to oust anyone nor to impose its own policies on other countries, he noted.

In 2022, trade between China and Europe reached an all-time high of 847 billion U.S. dollars. "The Europeans intend to rebalance these exchanges, it is understandable, but it is not by closing Europe to Chinese exports that they will achieve this," Guigue told Xinhua.

Worked as a senior official in the French Ministry of the Interior from 1990 to 2008, Guigue pointed out that France and China have forged fruitful partnerships in many sectors, such as nuclear industry, aeronautics, and public health.

Amid the energy crisis and soaring inflation, Europe needs even closer cooperation with China, Guigue said. "Whether in terms of trade, technology advances, or grand infrastructure projects, it (China) will have to be reckoned with."

"Why should Europe stay away from the planetary-scale transformations led by the Chinese companies, by their international dynamism, and by their astonishing capacity for innovation?" he wrote.

"When a country achieves economic success, you must first try to understand why it succeeds, and then try to cooperate with it to profit from it. Those who advocate distancing themselves from China are doing the opposite: they refuse to understand this country and adopt, in principle, a negative posture. In fact, they bury their heads in the sand," Guigue said.

This photo taken on Nov. 4, 2022 shows an evening view of the Lujiazui area in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang)

In recent years, Guigue has written several articles refuting false allegations made by Western media against China.

Along with French writer Maxime Vivas and other scholars, Guigue co-authored in 2021 a book, titled "La Chine sans oeilleres" (China without blinders), to show a real China to the Western public.