A strategic visit to friends from the Old Continent to try to change the narrative on China at a time of international tensions and ultimatums. Xi Jinping’s trip to Europe began in France, a competitor but accommodating country – according to the Chinese perspective – where the president of the People’s Republic will stay until […]
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A strategic visit to friends from the Old Continent to try to change the narrative on China at a time of international tensions and ultimatums. The journey of Xi Jinping in Europe it started from FranceVillage competitor but accommodating – according to the Chinese perspective – where the President of the People’s Republic will remain until Tuesday 7 May and then continue on to the most open-minded Serbia And Hungary. The last time Xi was welcomed in Europe was 2019. At the time the international community still considered the China as an important economic partner despite the first tariffs Donald Trump, but above all it had not yet seen the unfolding of a pandemic and two wars. The global stage on which Xi appears today instead looks towards China in earnest sceptical if not hostile, due to the proximity between Beijing and Moscow and the perceived threat of Chinese productive strength in key sectors for technological innovation such as solar panels and the electric cars. Thus the Chinese president chooses to mend his relationship with Europe starting from the link with France (and significantly Not with the Germany) and its president, “the understanding friend” Emmanuel Macron to whom he has already promised concrete help to obtain the desired result Olympic truce during the Paris 2024 Games.
Macron: the European friend who “understands” China – The Chinese media describe him as a friend capable of “knowing and understanding China”, while social media users in the People’s Republic wonder adoringly whether the French president is not nostalgic for the Chinese ballad that accompanied the tea he had with Xi a year ago a Guangzhou, in the Pine Garden. In the busy institutional day of the Chinese leader in France, which began with the trilateral meeting with the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Macron is the real interlocutor and the main objective of the visit. Despite their differences and areas of competition, the two leaders are leveraging theirs personal relationship to carry forward the dialogue between Paris and Beijing, with Macron acting as spokesperson for the entire EU by showing himself less judgmental of Brussels. It is with this in mind that tomorrow Macron will accompany Xi to the Pyrenees region, in the south-west of France, for a lunch at with du Tourmalet where the French president spent his holidays as a child with his grandmother. An intimate approach with the Chinese leader, to try to keep the communication channel open with the only man truly capable of communicating with Russia Vladimir Putin. The first concrete result in this sense from the bilateral talks between Xi and Macron arrived in the evening after the welcome ceremony at the Hotel National Des Invalides and concerns Putin’s interference. Macron in fact thanked Xi for his support for the Olympic truce, declaring that a pause in conflicts during the Paris Games “for all theaters of war could be an opportunity to work on a lasting solution in full compliance with international law”. The Chinese reassurance came in the symbolic form of Xi’s gift of the Olympic torches Beijing 2008 (the same ones in which the Olympic torch march was interrupted in Paris due to the pro-Tibet protests) and the winter ones of Beijing 2022. “France is a strong sporting nation. I wish the Paris Olympics great success,” declared the Chinese president.
The game of parties: Xi, Macron, Von der Leyen – A relaxed atmosphere on Xi’s second evening in France, after an uphill morning due to the meeting with Von der Leyen. Here Macron let her be the European leader to play the part of “policeman bad”, leaving the president of the EU Commission to have the say on the thorniest issues in the relationship with China. First of all, the relationship between Beijing And Flyalready subject to pressure from the United States as highlighted during the recent visit of the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who in Beijing underlined that “without China’s support, Russia would be in difficulty” in the war in Ukraine. “With Xi Jinping we discussed China’s commitment not to supply lethal equipment intended for Russia,” declared Von der Leyen, reiterating that “a greater effort is needed to reduce exports of technologies dual use (of both civil and military use ed.) that end up on the battlefield”. For his part, Xi, who has always denied arms trade with Russia, in an editorial for Le Figaro he said he was willing to “work together with the international community to resolve the Ukrainian crisis”. Macron later commented on this by saying he was satisfied with China’s commitment to “refrain from selling arms” to Moscow.
Overproduction and unfair competition – Dialogue between the deaf instead on the commercial front. On the one hand, Von der Leyen invited China to “fair competition” by declaring that “products subsidized by the country such as electric vehicles and steel are flooding the European market” and that “the world cannot absorb China’s overproduction”, Xi he replied that the problem of overproduction in China “does not exist” and that Beijing “significantly contributes to increasing supply on a global level by alleviating inflation pressure”. All this while the European Union has concluded yet another investigation anti-dumping on alleged Chinese state subsidies in key industries to which China responded with as many investigations: most recently that on the import of spirits, including the best-selling French Cognac. Also for these references Macron was quick to underline that a “logic of decoupling would be harmful”, underlining however that “fair rules are needed for everyone”.
