Although he has the image of an active leader, in recent years China’s President Xi Jinping has not traveled as much outside his country. In Europe, except for the territory of the Russian Federation, he has not set foot before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019. And when he did, any foreign trip was carefully thought out to convey a political message, as it was in 2023 , the case of Xi’s visit to Russia. Now in 2024, Xi Jinping’s first international outing was on a tour of three European countries, two from the EU, one from outside the Union: France, Serbia and Hungary. Each of his stops was chosen to convey various messages about China’s relations with the continent and the tensions on the global stage.
The Chinese and French presidents with their wives in the Pyrenees on May 7, 2024, on the second day of Xi Jinping’s visit to FrancePhoto: Pool/ABACA / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia
Ahead of Xi’s European tour, however, numerous European leaders have stopped by Beijing. Olaf Scholz (Germany), Emmanuel Macron (France), Pedro Sánchez (Spain), Ursula von der Leyen (European Commission) and Charles Michel (European Council) were among those who visited Xi in the past year , to talk about economic relations, strategic autonomy, the Taiwan issue or human rights.
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