Macron puts trade and Ukraine at the top of his priorities as China's Xi Jinping makes state visit to France

PARIS | Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived at the French presidential palace on Monday for a two-day state visit that is expected to focus on both trade disputes and diplomatic efforts to convince Beijing to use its influence to bring about Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

In Paris, Xi first attended a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen intended to address broader EU concerns. Macron said in his introductory speech that the meeting would first address trade issues and how to ensure “fair competition” and then the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“We are at a turning point in our history” as the Europe-China relationship faces challenges, Macron said.

The discussions aim to share “both our common positions and our concerns, to try to overcome them, because the future of our continent will very clearly also depend on our ability to develop balanced relations with China”, he said. he declares.

Macron, a staunch defender of Europe's economic sovereignty, wants to express French concerns over a Chinese anti-dumping investigation into cognac and other European spirits, as well as tensions around French cosmetics and other sectors .

In a recent speech, he denounced trade practices by China and the United States that increase protections and subsidies.

At the start of the meeting in Paris, Xi said that “the world has today entered a new period of turbulence and change.”

“As two important forces in the world, China and Europe should continually make new contributions to global peace and development,” he said.

The EU launched an investigation into Chinese subsidies last fall and could impose tariffs on electric vehicles exported from China.

“The European Union and China want good relations,” von der Leyen said. “We have important economic relations between the EU and China. But this relationship is also challenged, for example, by state-induced overcapacity, unequal market access and excessive dependencies.”

Paris is the first stop on Xi's European tour, aimed at rebuilding relations at a time of global tensions. After France on Monday and Tuesday, he will go to Serbia and Hungary.

France hopes the discussions will help convince China to use its influence with Moscow to “contribute to a resolution of the conflict” in Ukraine, according to a French presidential official. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently announced plans to visit China this month.

Macron will press Xi over supplies from Chinese companies supporting the Russian war effort despite EU sanctions, he said. China claims its neutrality in the Ukrainian conflict. France also wants China to maintain a dialogue with kyiv, added the official, who was not authorized to be identified as per presidential policy.

Last year, Macron called on Xi to “bring Russia to its senses,” but the call was not followed by any apparent action from Beijing.

“The French authorities are pursuing two ultimately contradictory objectives,” said Marc Julienne, director of the Center for Asian Studies at the French Institute of International Relations. “On the one hand, convince Xi that it is in his interest to help the Europeans pressure Vladimir Putin to end the war and, on the other hand, dissuade the Chinese president from delivering weapons to his Russian friend.”

“In short, we think Xi can help us, but at the same time we fear he can help Putin,” writes Julienne.

As France prepares to host the Summer Olympics, Macron said he would ask Xi to use his influence to make the Games “a diplomatic moment of peace.”

The discussions will also be closely followed from Washington, a month before President Joe Biden's planned state visit to France.

Xi's visit marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and China and follows Macron's trip to China in April 2023. Macron sparked controversy over the trip after saying France would not blindly follow the United States by getting involved in crises that do not concern it. , apparently referring to China's demands for unification with Taiwan.

Several groups, including the International Campaign for Tibet and the French Human Rights League, have urged Macron to put human rights issues at the heart of his talks with Xi. Protesters demonstrated in Paris upon Xi's arrival on Sunday, calling for a free Tibet.

Amnesty International called on Macron to demand the release of Uyghur economics professor Ilham Tohti, imprisoned for life in China in 2014 for promoting separatism, as well as other imprisoned activists.

On Monday morning, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders held a protest outside the Arc de Triomphe to denounce Xi's visit, calling the Chinese president “one of the greatest predators of press freedom.” . The group says 119 journalists are imprisoned in the country.

Macron said in an interview published on Sunday that he would raise human rights concerns.

Later on Monday, an official ceremony is due to take place at the Invalides monument before bilateral talks at the Elysée. Macron and Xi will conclude a Franco-Chinese economic forum nearby, then join their wives for a state dinner.

The second day of the visit is intended to be a more personal moment.

Macron invited Xi to visit the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees on Tuesday, where the French leader spent time as a child to see his grandmother. The trip is intended as a reciprocal gesture after Xi took Macron last year to the governor's residence of Guangdong province, where his father once lived.

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Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris and Stephen Graham in Berlin contributed to this story.

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