France surrenders to China

After a wave of anti-French protests in China, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France is sending three top officials there this week in a hastily assembled diplomatic charm offensive to limit the political and economic fallout from the controversy surrounding the preparations for the Olympic Games. Thousands of protesters massed in front of Chinese outlets of the French supermarket chain Carrefour over the weekend, demonstrating against what they saw as France's support for pro-Tibet agitators and calling for a boycott of French goods. France has become the main focus of a string of fiercely nationalistic protests in China, notably after footage of a 27-year-old Chinese athlete in a wheelchair protecting the Olympic torch from protesters as it passed through Paris this month turned her into a national hero and talk show star. The dispute could herald a new chapter in relations between the West and China, the world's leading emerging economic powerhouse, analysts said. By allowing protests to take place and Web sites to call for a boycott in its tightly controlled state, the leadership in Beijing is for the first time flexing its economic muscle. "China's self-confidence is growing even faster than its GDP," said Eberhard Sandschneider, a China expert and director of the research institute at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. "We're entering a new phase in Western-Chinese relations. The Chinese are beginning to use their economic power as a lever." Herald Tribune

The Europeans are running scared from China. It is about time the Euro trash had something else to worry about besides the U. S. and her fight for Western Judeo-Christian values. I for one hope Europe or the European Union is pushed in to a corner and forced to choose between loss of identity or admit who they are from whence they came.