Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected on Sunday for a rare visit to France where his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to try to push him to reduce trade imbalances and persuade him to use his influence with Russia on the issue of war. from Ukraine, according to Reuters.
These two goals are likely to be difficult to achieve during Xi Jinping’s two-day visit to Paris, at a time when trade tensions between the European Union and China are worsening, comments the British press agency.
France is backing a European Union investigation into Chinese electric vehicle exports, and in January Beijing opened an investigation into imports of cognac – largely made in France – a move widely seen as “tit-for-tat retaliation”. ) to several investigations from the EU.
“We must continue to press the Chinese authorities to give us more guarantees on trade-related issues,” an Elysee Palace adviser said ahead of Xi’s visit, his first trip to Europe in five years.
The Chinese president is due to arrive around 16:00 (14:00 GMT) in Paris, having scheduled a meeting with Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission.
The divisions between the 27 member countries of the EU – and especially between France and Germany – undermine their ability to influence China, notes Reuters. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be able to join Macron and Xi in Paris due to other commitments, authorized sources said. “Influence loses its effect if European leaders send different messages to Xi (Jinping),” says Noah Barkin, an analyst at the Rhodium Group, which closely follows relations between the EU and China.
France will also try to address the opening of the Chinese market for its agricultural exports and issues related to the French cosmetics industry’s concerns about intellectual property rights, officials in Paris said. At the same time, France has so far tried to push China to pressure Moscow to end its operations in Ukraine, with little progress so far, apart from Xi’s decision to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time , shortly after Macron visited Beijing last year.
“China being one of Russia’s main partners, our objective is to use the leverage it has over Moscow to change Russia’s calculations and to contribute to the resolution of the conflict,” said the same advisor from the Elysee Palace.
A French diplomatic source said: “If the Chinese are looking to deepen their relationship with their European partners, it is very important that they hear our point of view and start taking it seriously.”
Macron will take Xi to the Pyrenees, mountains he is very connected to as the birthplace of his maternal grandmother.
The gesture is meant to be an echo of Macron’s visit to the city of Guangzhou, where Xi invited him to take part in a tea ceremony at his father’s former residence.
“Macron is turning to his charm as usual, trying to win over foreign leaders by establishing a personal relationship with them,” Barkin said. “But I hope he has no illusions that bringing Xi to a place that has been important to him since childhood will make Xi cry and lead to compromises on the part of Beijing”, comments the quoted analyst.
Xi will leave France on Tuesday afternoon to continue his European tour in Serbia and Hungary, countries with good relations with Russia.
