Xi Jinping arrived in Paris on Sunday, where his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron intends to advocate commercial “reciprocity” and the search for a resolution to the war in Ukraine in the face of a Chinese president who continues to show his support for Russia.
Returning for the first time to Europe since 2019, the number one Asian superpower organized his tour under the seal of diplomatic balance: after the state visit to France, which has been asking him for a year to use his influence to “bring Russia to reason”, he will travel to Serbia and Hungary, two countries that have remained close to Moscow.
He is welcomed around 4:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT) by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal at Paris’s Orly airport. On Monday, Xi Jinping, who is coming to celebrate 60 years of Franco-Chinese diplomatic relations, will continue meetings with Emmanuel Macron, who consulted in advance with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
In the morning, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will join the Franco-Chinese duo at the Elysée for a session which should make it possible to raise trade disputes.
And they are many. Threatened with being caught between the American and Chinese economies, massively aided by public authorities, the European Union has in recent months increased investigations into Chinese state subsidies to several industrial sectors, in particular to electric vehicles, accused of distorting competition.
“Olympic Truce”
In an interview with La Tribune on Sunday, Emmanuel Macron recognizes that Europeans are “not unanimous” on the strategy to adopt because, he says, “certain actors still see China essentially as a market of opportunities” while it ” exports massively to Europe. He pleads to “better protect our national security”, “to be much more realistic in the defense of our interests” and “to obtain reciprocity”.
In Beijing, these measures deemed “protectionist” go down badly. The Chinese authorities have launched their own anti-subsidy investigation mainly targeting French cognac, against which the French president intends to speak out.
Although no major contract was announced at this stage, discussions on investments were ongoing until the end. A Franco-Chinese economic forum is also planned for Monday at the Marigny theater.
In the afternoon, after a formal welcome ceremony with great pomp at the Invalides, and before a banquet at the Elysée, Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping will meet face-to-face for the most political sequence, then will express in front of the press. The Frenchman intends to ask the Chinese to support the “Olympic truce” for “all” conflicts during the Paris Games this summer.
Paris wants to at least ensure that China, the main ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, does not fall into clear support for his war effort against kyiv. Even “encourage it to use the levers” it has over Moscow to “contribute to a resolution of this conflict”, according to the Elysée.
Break the protocol
Emmanuel Macron carried this same message a year ago during his own state visit to China, with modest results. For Marc Julienne, researcher at the French Institute of International Relations, “this approach reveals a lack of understanding of the interests and strategy of Beijing”, which wants to “keep its distance from the conflict” and does not intend “to involve more, neither in the sense of the Europeans, nor in the sense of military support for Russia.
The French president will nevertheless try to drive the point home on Tuesday, in the Pyrenees, during a more personal getaway between the two men, accompanied by their wives. The objective of this lunch on the Col du Tourmalet, where, as a child, he spent his holidays with his grandmother, is eminently diplomatic: to break the imposing protocol to establish a more direct dialogue, particularly on Ukraine.
On the sensitive issue of human rights, Emmanuel Macron says he prefers to discuss “disagreements” rather “behind closed doors”. Paris also did not want to prioritize the issue of Taiwan, even though it is at the heart of the strong tensions between the United States and China.
Several hundred Tibetan activists gathered on Sunday at Place de la République in Paris to denounce China as “a predator” and “a colonial regime”. “No to Chinese totalitarianism,” read one banner. From Wednesday to Friday, Xi Jinping will then go to Serbia and Hungary.
