the essential
Xi Jinping arrived in Paris this Sunday. This is the first time since the Covid pandemic that the Chinese president has returned to France.
“On the afternoon of May 5 local time, President Xi Jinping arrived by plane in Paris to begin a state visit to France,” official Chinese television said. He was welcomed around 4:00 p.m. by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal at Paris’s Orly airport.
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Millimeterized program
On Monday, the number one of the Asian superpower 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 raise trade disputes. And they are many. In recent months, the European Union has increased investigations into Chinese state subsidies to several industrial sectors. We are thinking in particular of electric vehicles, accused of distorting competition.
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Passage in front of the press
A Franco-Chinese economic forum is also planned for Monday at the Marigny theater. After a formal welcome ceremony at Les Invalides, and before a banquet at the Elysée, Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping will meet face-to-face for the most political sequence.
They will then speak to 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.
From Wednesday to Friday, Xi Jinping will then go to Serbia and Hungary.
