Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz met to align their positions against China

Paris and Berlin want to speak with one voice during the Chinese president's visit to France on Monday. Xi Jinping will first be received by Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron in Paris, where a state dinner is planned at the Élysée, then, on May 7, the two couples will travel to the Hautes-Pyrénées.

And if this visit “takes place on the occasion of 60 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries”according to the Elysée services, it is also an opportunity for the French president to address the many tense issues which are straining Franco-Chinese relations but also those between Beijing and the European Union.

“Align their positions”

Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, therefore exchanged, Thursday evening, during an informal dinner in Paris, to “align their positions” before the Chinese president's state visit to France, the entourage of the French head of state said this Friday. A dinner which had been presented as private by the Elysée, but of which several official photos – of the two couples, all smiles – were published immediately on social networks, including one shared simultaneously by the leaders themselves.

“Europe is at an impasse facing China” (Benjamin Bürbaumer, Sciences-Po Bordeaux)

According to Emmanuel Macron's entourage, the Elysée had proposed to the German Chancellor to join the trilateral meeting scheduled for Monday between the French President, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Xi Jinping. The idea was to reissue the format of 2019, when Emmanuel Macron associated Chancellor Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker, her predecessor, with an exchange with his Chinese counterpart in Paris.

But Olaf Scholz could not accept, because he had a trip already planned to Latvia and Lithuania, it is argued on the French side. The agenda was, in fact, “set for a long time”confirmed this Friday in Berlin a spokesperson for the chancellery, Wolfgang Büchner, to the press, estimating that, as a result, the question of such German participation had not really arisen.

This is not the first time that Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz have spoken before a meeting with the Chinese president. They had, in fact, done it by videoconference before the chancellor's visit to China in mid-April, and then discussed it on his return during a European summit in Brussels.

“Address the discussion with Xi Jinping in a European way”

The two leaders were thus able to tune their violin during the Thursday evening dinner in which their wives also participated and which was held at the Parisian brasserie La Rotonde where Emmanuel Macron is a regular. “This conversation will allow the President of the Republic to approach the discussion with Xi Jinping in a European way”said a member of his entourage.

“Upstream consultation between Germany and France is still very close,” “It’s a good exercise, and we will continue this Franco-German cooperation in this area, particularly on the theme of security”declared, for his part, the Chancellor’s spokesperson.

With the objective of defending the interests of Europe, as Emmanuel Macron indicated this week. In an interview with the British newspaper The Economistthe president called on Europe to defend its “strategic interests” facing China. “This is one of my main objectives in welcoming President Xi Jinping, we must do everything to engage China on major global issues and have an exchange on our economic relations which are based on reciprocity”he added. “Today we must behave respectfully on the commercial level with China, but in defense of our interests, reciprocity and national security”insisted Emmanuel Macron, who said he supported the investigations opened by the European Commission on electric vehicles, photovoltaics and wind power concerning Chinese subsidies suspected of distorting competition.

Massive subsidies

In the sights of the European Commission in fact: the massive subsidies granted by Beijing to its industry which disadvantage European industry, according to Brussels. Particularly in the case of electric cars. In the interview published in The EconomistEmmanuel Macron thus estimated that they are “taxed at 10%” on the European market while their production is “massively helped” by the Chinese executive. Conversely, European electric vehicles, for which “Europe has rules that limit aid” to their producers, are “taxed at 15%” on the Chinese market.

And “We must not forget the issues of national security,” he also underlines. “There are many sectors where China requires producers to be Chinese, because they are too sensitive. Well, we Europeans must be able to do the same thing”he added again.

Links between Beijing and Moscow

Another subject that should be discussed with Xi Jinping: ties between China and Russia. Calling for a peace solution, the Chinese authorities, who officially say they are neutral, have never condemned the Russian invasion. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also due to visit China in May. Two weeks earlier, the head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, accused Beijing of “supporting Russia’s war economy” by sharing cutting-edge technologies that can be used to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft. “China says it wants to maintain good relations with the West. At the same time, Beijing continues to fuel the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.he said in a speech at an awards ceremony in Berlin on transatlantic ties. “They can’t have it both ways”he concluded.

A year ago in China, Emmanuel Macron had already called on Xi Jinping to “bring Russia to its senses” towards Ukraine “and everyone at the negotiating table”. The Chinese president then said, face to face, that he was ready to call his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the French delegation. The phone call actually took place shortly after. But the diplomatic progress expected by Paris on the Russian-Ukrainian front stopped there.

(With AFP)