Now it’s Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s turn to launch the charm offensive in his first state visit to the European Union in five years, with France as his first stop.
Xi is spending two days in France, where he is expected to meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday before heading to Serbia and Hungary.
The Chinese leader’s visit to France is important since the country is the second largest economy in the European Union.
It also follows Blinken’s trip to China late last month, where the two sides sparred over a range of issues from trade to national security. They remain at odds and disputes could intensify in the run-up to U.S. elections later this year, analysts say.
France, like the United States and Germany, complains about the overcapacity of Chinese factories, particularly in the green sector.
“I call for an ‘aggiornamento’ because China is now overcapacity in many areas and exports massively to Europe,” Macron told La Tribune on Sunday, according to a Bloomberg translation. Macron used the Italian word for “update” to call for a refresh in French-Chinese relations.
Xi’s agenda in Europe
So, what can we expect from Xi’s stay in Europe?
Xi hopes to avoid the same type of stress that Beijing faces with Washington, one expert said.
“Xi will use his time with Macron to downplay China’s continued support for Putin’s war machine,” Matt Geraci, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, wrote Thursday.
“He will also emphasize that France and other European countries continue to benefit from economic engagement with China and that they should pursue an independent path rather than following Washington’s lead,” Geraci added.
Macron, for his part, should call on Xi to use China’s influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine, his office told The Associated Press.
Macron said in April last year that one of the big risks facing Europe was being drawn into “crises that are not ours”.
Furthermore, there are differences between EU countries regarding their strategy towards China.
“Beijing, aware of increasingly apparent differences within Europe in the fight against Chinese subsidies in key sectors such as electric vehicles, aims to create divisions between member states to complicate the anti- EU subsidies on Chinese imports of electric vehicles,” Geraci added.
The European elections are in a few weeks
The European Union is expected to hold elections to the European Parliament in June. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is seeking a second term for this top job.
Von der Leyen, who is expected to meet Xi with Macron on Monday, denounced an “oversupply of subsidized Chinese products” ahead of the gathering. She said China’s trade practices lead to unfair trade that “distorts the market” and “could lead to deindustrialization in Europe.”
China has pushed back against claims of overcapacity from the West, accusing the bloc of being protectionist and trying to curb China’s economic development.
Beijing is now trying to steer China’s economy, which is going through a painful transition from its reliance on lower-value real estate and manufacturing to the hot new sectors of electric vehicles, lithium batteries and solar panels.
Trade issues will “undoubtedly” be a key topic of discussion, especially as China is in an economic crisis, Léonie Allard, a visiting scholar at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center, wrote in a note Thursday.
Macron told Economist in a recent interview, he said he was willing to continue working with China on “major global issues” and bring China “in line with international rules.”
However, Europe – like China – is no longer quite the same, after years of economic malaise punctuated by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
“2024 is not 2019, and the limits of China as a trusted partner are much clearer,” Allard added, referring to Xi’s latest visit to France.
businessinsider
