Xi Jinping arrived on Sunday May 5 in Paris, where 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 to Europe for the first time since 2019, the Chinese president 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 its senses,” he will visit Serbia and Hungary, two countries that have remained close to Moscow.
“On the afternoon of May 5 local time, [People's Republic of China] President Xi Jinping arrived by plane in Paris to begin a state visit to France,” official Chinese television announced CCTV. He was welcomed around 4 p.m. by the French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, at Orly airport.
Commercial disputes
On Monday, Xi Jinping, who is coming to celebrate sixty years of Franco-Chinese diplomatic relations, will continue meetings with Emmanuel Macron, who consulted in advance with the 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 that should raise the issue of trade disputes.
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.
In the afternoon, after a formal welcoming 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 speak in front of the press. The French president intends to ask his Chinese counterpart to support the “Olympic truce” for “all” conflicts during the Paris Games this summer.
“Contribute to a resolution” of the Ukrainian conflict
Paris wants to at least ensure that China, the main ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, does not fall into clear support for its war effort against kyiv; or even “encourage it to use the levers” it has over Moscow to “contribute to a resolution of this conflict”, according to the Elysée. Emmanuel Macron carried this same message a year ago during his own state visit to China, with modest results.
On Tuesday, the French president will nevertheless try to drive the point home, 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 make the Taiwan issue a priority, 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.
