4/30/24
BEIJING – Chinese President Xi Jinping is heading to the European Union for the first time in five years with a clear message: Beijing offers much more of an economic opportunity for the bloc than the US wants to admit.
The Chinese leader will begin his five-day trip to France, Serbia and Hungary on May 5, according to the Foreign Ministry in Beijing. Those nations are seeking investment from China, despite a litany of EU investigations into Beijing’s industrial policy and warnings from officials in Washington about the risks.
President Emmanuel Macron aims to deepen his personal connection with Mr Xi during the latter’s two-day visit to France, as he appeals to the Chinese leader to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, according to people familiar with the plans who asked not to be identified discussing Paris’ approach.
Mr Macron also aims to entice Chinese spending in France’s electric vehicle (EV) battery sector, they said.
That charm offensive will include hosting Mr Xi for dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris, where the menu may feature French cognac, according to the people – a liquor subject to a Beijing anti-dumping probe.
Mr Macron will then invite his Chinese counterpart to a corner of the Pyrenees mountains where the French President used to visit his grandmother as a child, the people added.
“France’s Emmanuel Macron offers Xi the opportunity to negotiate with a leading EU power that’s proved willing to carve a more independent path,” said National University of Singapore associate professor of political science Chong Ja Ian.
This trip “is an effort to try to pull at parts of Europe that Xi feels might be more sympathetic to his position”.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Mr Macron’s diplomatic adviser on April 27 that he hopes Paris can push the EU to pursue a pragmatic policy towards Beijing.
Mr Macron and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will also hold a trilateral meeting with Mr Xi during his visit, her chief spokesman wrote on social media platform X.
Mr Xi’s trip comes as the EU is steadily forging a more unified voice with Washington in opposing China’s capacity for cheap exports and perceived national security risks.
After years serving as a buffer between the world’s superpowers, distrust in Brussels is growing: Germany last week arrested four alleged Chinese spies, the latest in a spate of such cases, while EU diplomats are reportedly mulling over more curbs on Chinese companies for their support of Russia’s war machine.
“I think it’s part of an attempt to persuade the Europeans that there are better options, that better relations are possible,” Dr Duncan Freeman, a lecturer on China-Europe relations at the Brussels Management School in Belgium, said ahead of Mr Xi’s trip.
“We’re not yet in the last chance saloon, but I think even the Chinese would agree the relationship is far from ideal.”
Mr Xi’s visit to Europe comes weeks after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Communist Party leaders in Beijing that Chinese overcapacity was a problem for the world – a message echoed days later by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.