{"id":634957,"date":"2025-12-16T00:14:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/634957\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T00:14:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:14:18","slug":"opinion-in-france-china-sees-a-civilisational-partner-in-a-polarised-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/634957\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | In France, China sees a civilisational partner in a polarised world"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Constructed around 256 BC, Dujiangyan is the world\u2019s oldest irrigation system that is still in use today. Long before the invention of gunpowder, the system was using natural topographic and hydrological features to divert water from the Min River for irrigation and flood control without the use of dams.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">To this day, the ecological engineering feat irrigates 668,700 hectares of farmland in the Chengdu plains of southwestern China.<\/p>\n<p>It was in the tranquil, lush mountains surrounding Dujiangyan that Chinese President Xi Jinping chose to conclude French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s three-day state <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/diplomacy\/article\/3335377\/china-and-france-agree-work-together-nuclear-issues-macron-wraps-visit?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">visit to China<\/a>. The choice of location was intentional and highly symbolic: the engineering feat reflects the resilience and pioneering spirit of Chinese civilisation.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Like the flow of water from ancient times, Chinese civilisation is the world\u2019s only uninterrupted great civilisation that continues to this day as a state and is uniquely characterised by its continuity, creativity and unity.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The French nation also has a glorious culture and a long history. China sees France as an emblem of Western civilisation, and the sense of being heirs to great civilisations is a source of mutual respect that undergirds Sino-French relations.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">China has always appreciated and valued France for being the first major Western power to establish full diplomatic ties and ambassador-level exchanges with Beijing following French recognition of the People\u2019s Republic in 1964. Shunning bipolar binaries, China and France should forge their relationship with civilisational confidence and continue to position their bilateral relationship as distinct from geopolitical alignments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Constructed around 256 BC, Dujiangyan is the world\u2019s oldest irrigation system that is still in use today. Long&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[3801,196029,1395,50585,196030,2000,299,36,196032,196028,196033,43,196031,196034,1814,121162,1773],"class_list":{"0":"post-634957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-beijing","9":"tag-chengdu-plains","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-chinese-civilisation","12":"tag-dujiangyan","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-france","16":"tag-french-nation","17":"tag-global-civilisation-initiative","18":"tag-global-governance-initiative","19":"tag-macron","20":"tag-minjiang-river","21":"tag-mount-qingcheng","22":"tag-palestine","23":"tag-pyrenees-mountains","24":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115726363310805371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}