News Analysis The outspoken Chinese ambassador to France fell silent after Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron on the phone on Oct. 26. The call came ahead of France’s appointment to the rotational European Union presidency in January 2022. According to Chinese publication Legal Daily, Xi said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attaches great importance to developing ties with France and wants to restore relations with them and Europe overall. Experts have said that the political rhetoric from certain Chinese ambassadors are working contrary to the Chinese regime’s goals. A day prior to the Xi–Macron call came the latest incendiary comment from China’s “wolf-warrior” ambassador to France, Lu Shaye. Wolf-warrior diplomacy is a recent tactic employed by the CCP, attacking principles of free societies with aggressive party-line rhetoric. On Oct. 25, Lu accused Le Figaro’s Asian correspondent Sebastien Falletti of being “full of lies and …