History information. France-China: the colonial experience

In the past, relations between the two states were marked with the seal of colonization. When France obtained a concession in the city of Shanghai in 1849, it was thanks to the power of its arms. Shanghai and Tien Tsin will be places that will make the French dream of the Far East. Shanghai especially, considered a city of pleasures.

An excerpt from a 1940 radio play illustrates this perfectly: the Chinese experience poverty, while the international concession lives in luxury. After the Second World War, the nationalist government of Chiang Kai-Shek blocked this process and the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 by Mao gradually brought China into the narrow circle of the great powers.

Ideological influence

Begins the reversal. Communist China exerts an ideological influence in the West, where the Maoists are, from 1968, at the forefront of protest. In France, the fantasy of a Chinese invasion is emerging. Jean Yanne stages it in his film The Chinese in Parisin 1974. But it is a pretext to denounce the French collaboration during the German occupation of 1940-44.

Seen today, this fiction has something prophetic about it. Chinese power has asserted itself. Through the economy, this country has forged its new silk roads, which impose it as a master throughout the world. Looking at Macron and Xi Jinping, we know that imperialism is no longer embodied by France, but by China, which we must now ask to defend peace. And not to use arms… Yes, the reversal has taken place.