Why does Paris care? France was once an imperial power with colonies across the region but, like the other former colonial rulers, it’s been a bit preoccupied with European affairs in recent decades. Its attention has been elsewhere. That’s changing.”We want to make sure the rise of China is happening in a way that does not destabilise the region,” Penot tells me. Or, as France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, put it while standing on the deck of an Australian warship in Sydney Harbour two years ago: “We are not naive.”France’s outgoing ambassador to Australia Christophe Penot. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen”If we want to be seen and respected as an equal partner by China we have to organise ourselves,” Macron said. “That’s why I do think it’s very important to build together, given this change, a common strategy.”That visit “put the Indo-Pacific firmly on the map” of France’s priorities, says Penot. “I can confidently say we have made huge progress” in strengthening the relationship with Australia. This country’s decision to commission France’s Naval Group to build 12 submarines for $A80 billion is a centrepiece of the new affinity.”The rules-based order is challenged very severely,” Penot observes. Paris wants to work with Australia, Japan, India, Indonesia and others in ASEAN region to preserve it, he says.France still has a substantial presence. It has seven of its overseas territories in the Indo-Pacific, including the archipelagos of New Caledonia and French Polynesia and the island of Reunion. They’re surrounded by waters that make up 80 per cent of France’s exclusive economic zone worldwide. The French Navy conducts freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea every year. And France, like Australia, is also an Antarctic power, another priority interest for the Chinese Communist Party’s global ambitions.Europe is conflicted. Seventeen European countries have signed on to China’s worldwide Belt and Road project, the biggest of which is Italy. This signals remarkable trust in the authoritarian one-party state.At the same time, the EU’s official policy describes China as a “systemic rival” of Europe’s. Countries across the EU toughened their foreign investment rules against CCP money as they’ve realised the extent of subversive influence that it carries. “Foreign interference – later than in Australia – has become a major concern in the EU,” says Penot.The EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell this year said that Europe had been “a little naive” in its relationship with China, but was becoming more realistic.Penot plans to use his new job to bring the larger European Union around to Macron’s way of thinking. “Now we will talk to the others, to the EU, to make sure the EU develops its own strategy on the Indo-Pacific. There’s a lot the EU could do and it could bring a lot of resources for security, training, development aid, climate change, trade and investment.”The world is waking up to the Chinese Communist Party’s ambition and aggression. The US has been the loudest and most obvious voice, but many countries have started to react to Beijing’s bullying. France is just one of the nations that started to comprehend the problem, and organise accordingly.’If we want to be seen and respected as an equal partner by China we have to organise ourselves.’French President Emmanuel MacronFor more than a decade Beijing complained bitterly whenever anyone mentioned the prospect of the “Quad” group – a long-mooted partnership between the US, Japan, India and Australia. It was a plot to “contain China,” said Beijing, and India was most reluctant to take part.But last week the Quad held its second ministerial meeting. The Quad is slowly taking shape. Why has India set aside its reservations? In a word, China.The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, wants to take the Quad much further: “Once we’ve institutionalised what we’re doing – the four of us together – we can begin to build out a true security framework,” he said before heading into the meeting with his counterparts. The aim was to “counter the challenge that the Chinese Communist Party presents to all of us”.Beijing’s behaviour has alarmed a score of countries that would have preferred to turn a blind eye and simply accept Chinese trade and investment. China’s elites have noticed the backlash: “It would be better if China had been more low-key and humble,” a prominent commentator, Shen Dingli of Fudan University in Shanghai, told the New York Times.Chinese President Xi Jinping reviews a naval parade.Credit:APEven one of the most nationalistic of China’s strategic thinkers, Yan Xuetong, said it was counterproductive for Beijing to keep picking ideological and political fights with other countries. The government “should have the awareness to respect other people’s political systems and suppress their arrogance of demeaning their political systems,” he said.World public opinion is moving against China. The independent polling group Pew Research published a 14-nation survey of public attitudes to China last week: “Unfavourable opinion has soared over the past year,” Pew summarised.”Today, a majority in each of the surveyed countries has an unfavourable opinion of China. And in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, South Korea, Spain and Canada, negative views have reached their highest points since the [Pew] Centre began polling on this topic more than a decade ago.”LoadingThe surge of distrust began with China’s COVID-19 cover-up and the spread of the made-in-China virus. It has continued as President Xi Jinping has intensified Beijing’s intimidation and abuse of other countries since.Across the 14 countries polled, a median of 78 per cent expressed “no trust” in Xi to “do the right thing in international affairs”. Those polled trust Donald Trump even less. Individuals can try to move to other countries to avoid risk, but we cannot move to other worlds. Nations need to group in new partnerships if they hope for any stability in a churning, boiling, storm-tossed world.Peter Hartcher is international editor.Get our Morning & Evening Edition newslettersThe most important news, analysis and insights delivered to your inbox at the start and end of each day. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald’s newsletter here, The Age’s newsletter here, Brisbane Times’ here and WAtoday’s here.Peter Hartcher is political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Most Viewed in WorldLoading