China’s President Xi Jinping heads to Paris on Sunday for a rare visit to meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to cut trade issues and build political mutual trust, France 24 reported.
Xi Jinping was due to arrive at around 4pm (14:00 GMT). His official meetings will include joint talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on trade issues and Ukrainian crisis. But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not join the two laders Paris because of previous commitments, sources said.
Controversy within the 27-member European Union, particularly between France and Germany, is undermining their ability to influence China. The Elysee advisor stressed ahead of Chinese leader’s visit, his first trip to Europe in five years, that France “must continue to push Chinese authorities to give us more guarantees on trade issues.”
Leverage flies out the window if European leaders are sending different messages to Xi, according to Noah Barkin, a senior adviser at the Rhodium Group and close follower of EU-China relations.
France is backing a European Union investigation into Chinese exports of electric cars, and in January Beijing launched an investigation into imports of brandy, which is mostly made in France, in what many see as a response amid a growing number of EU investigations.
France will also seek to make progress in opening up the Chinese market to its agricultural exports and address French cosmetics industry concerns over intellectual property rights, officials said. Paris will also try to push China to pressure Moscow. France still made little progress, with the exception of Xi Jinping’s decision to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time shortly after Macron’s visit to Beijing last year. According to the Elysee adviser:
China being one of Russia’s main partners, our objective is to use the leverages it has on Moscow to change Russia’s calculations and help contribute to solving the conflict.
On Tuesday, Macron will take Xi Jinping to the Pyrenees, a mountain he particularly values as the birthplace of his maternal grandmother. The gesture is meant to echo Xi Jinping’s decision to invite Macron to a tea ceremony at Xi’s father’s former residence in Guangzhou.
Macron is always in charm mode, he is trying to get foreign leaders on side by establishing a personal rapport with them. (…) But I hope that he isn’t under any illusions that bringing Xi to a place that is important to him from his childhood is going to bring Xi to tears and lead to compromises from Beijing, Barkin highlighted.
Xi Jinping will leave France on Tuesday afternoon for Russia-friendly Serbia and Hungary. In Serbia, Xi Jinping will hold talks with President Aleksandar Vučić to exchange views on bilateral relations and discuss the modernisation of Sino-Serbian relations. While Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is seeking to expand economic ties with China, including by increasing Hungary’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative.
