(AFP) – Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in France on Sunday on a state visit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, with the French leader seeking to pressure the president on a range of issues from Ukraine to trade.
The visit, which marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and China, marks the beginning of Xi’s first trip to Europe since 2019, and will also include visits to Serbia and Hungary.
However, Mr. Xi’s choice of France as the only major European country to visit means that Mr. Macron himself will make a state visit to China in April 2023 and recognize the French leader’s position as a power broker in the EU. Since then, Sino-French relations have shown relative warmth.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the plane carrying Mr. Xi had landed in Paris.
The leader of the one-party communist nation of more than 1.4 billion people, accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan, was due to be received at Paris-Orly airport by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
President Xi will hold talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and others in Paris on Monday, followed by a state dinner hosted by Macron.
On Tuesday, President Macron will take Mr. Xi to the Pyrenees Mountains for a less public and more intimate meeting in a place he often visited as a boy.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal greets Chinese President Xi Jinping upon his arrival for a two-day official visit at Orly Airport, south of Paris, on May 5, 2024 (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/POOL/AFP) Photo by Stéphane de Sactin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Macron’s top priority is to warn President Xi Jinping of the dangers of Russian support in the invasion of Ukraine, and Western officials say Russia is already using Chinese machine tools to produce weapons. Are concerned.
Relations between Beijing and Moscow have cooled if anything since the invasion, and Western countries want above all to see China not supply Russia with weapons and risk upsetting the balance of the conflict.
“It is in our interest to ask China for its opinion on the stability of the international order,” Macron said in an interview with The Economist newspaper published Thursday.
“Therefore, we must work with China to build peace,” he added.
Macron also said in the same interview that Europe must protect its “strategic interests” in economic relations with China, accusing Beijing of not respecting the rules of international trade.
But he said in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche that while China “exports a lot” to Europe, “some actors still see China essentially as a market of opportunity. He acknowledged that there is “not unanimous agreement” on the strategy that European countries should take.
After his 2023 visit, the French president declared that Europe should not be drawn into the conflict between China and the United States, especially over the democratic and autonomous state of Taiwan, pleasing Chinese state media and encouraging some EU allies. It was bothering me.
China considers the island part of its territory and has vowed to one day seize it by force if necessary.
“The worst thing to do is to think that we Europeans have to follow suit and adapt to the American rhythm and China’s overreactions,” Macron said at the time, warning of “bloc versus bloc logic.”
China overtook the United States in 2020 to become the European Union’s largest trading partner, as ties between Brussels and the communist dictatorship in Beijing continue to deepen. https://t.co/RzgCixukoq
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 17, 2021
Human rights groups have called on President Macron to raise human rights in talks, accusing China of failing to respect the rights of the Uyghur Muslim minority and detaining dozens of journalists.
“President Macron should make clear to Xi Jinping that China’s crimes against humanity have implications for China-France relations,” said Maya Wang, deputy China director at Human Rights Watch.
The group said human rights in China had “significantly deteriorated” under Xi’s rule.
But analysts said that even though he was welcomed with a lavish red carpet and traveled to the crisp mountain air of the Col de Tourmalet, more than 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) above sea level on Tuesday, Mr. I am skeptical that it will be able to exert much influence.
The other two countries Xi has chosen to visit, Serbia and Hungary, are seen as among the most sympathetic to Moscow in Europe.
“President Macron’s two core messages are about China’s support for Russia’s military and China’s market-distorting behavior,” said Janka Oertel, head of the Asia Program at the European Council on Foreign Relations. .
“However, neither message is likely to have much of an impact on China’s behavior. President Xi is not on a mission to mend relations, because from his point of view everything is going well.”
‘Signs of genocide’: Conservative human rights committee details Chinese Communist Party human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet https://t.co/HneNAtpMfm
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 13, 2021
