Who Needs Enemies When You Have France?

It appears that while France is against the removal of a brutal oppressive dictator, it has no problem with supporting a communist dictatorship with designs on an independent democratic nation.

At the outset of a three-day visit to China, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said he supported Beijing's "anti-secession" law on Taiwan, and vowed to keep pushing for an end to an EU arms embargo that could open the door for Paris to sell weapons to the Asian giant.

Raffarin also signed or finalized major business deals with Beijing valued at around $3.2 billion (2.4 billion euros).

Appearing to put his government at odds with the European Union, Raffarin said at the outset of the three day visit that Paris had no objections to the anti-secession law.

"The anti-secession law is completely compatible with the position of France," he said in a joint press conference with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao.

France has no problems with China using "non-peaceful means" to prevent Taiwan from establishing independence, but does have problems with the United States using “non-peaceful means” to grant independence to the oppressed people of Iraq. Why is that? Well, the second paragraph of the article quoted above gives the answer: money!

In this case, $3.2 billion worth of business deals with China. Just as with Iraq, France has no principles when money is involved. Whether it is oil concessions for French companies and oil-for-food kickbacks for French politicians and businessmen with Iraq or large sales of Airbus airliners to China, money talks and ethics walk for the French.