Photo: AFP/pool/Michel Euler
Mariann Őry
05/05/2024 16:59
Due to the covid epidemic, the Chinese President travels to Europe for the first time in five years. “Just before that 2019 visit, the EU revamped its China policy, adopting the mantra of ‘partner, competitor, rival’ to describe its engagement with Beijing,” according to SCMP Correspondent Finbarr Bermingham. “Now Beijing has pinned its hopes on France, the first port of call on Xi’s three-country European tour, to push the bloc to adopt a more ‘positive and pragmatic’ China policy amid heightened scrutiny over Chinese products and market access in recent months,” he added.
“China looks forward to working with France through this visit to … further enhance political mutual trust, solidarity and cooperation, so that we can jointly elevate our comprehensive strategic partnership [and] inject impetus to a sound and stable China-EU relationship,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Monday.
According to Bermingham, French President Emmanuel Macron “will try to convince his Chinese counterpart that the EU’s sharpened approach is not an anti-China crusade, but a natural consequence of the bloc strengthening its defences and Beijing not adjusting its economic model despite years of requests from Europeans.” He noted that Macron will take the Chinese leader to “Pic du Midi, a peak in the Pyrenees mountain range, where he spent many childhood holidays with his grandmother”. “This is seen by the Élysée as a ‘mirror’ of Macron’s trip to China last year, when Xi took him to the southern province of Guangdong where his father was governor during the Deng Xiaoping era,” he added.
“I am not suggesting we move away from China. However, I think that we must better protect our national security, our sovereignty, de-risk part of our supply chains and be much more realistic in defending our interests,” Emmanuel Macron told French media.
The visits to France, Serbia and Hungary will inject momentum for the further development of China-Europe relations, showcasing that the two sides can maintain positive interactions and mutually beneficial cooperation transcending traditional geopolitics, according to experts cited by Global Times.
Pierre Picquart, an expert in geopolitics and human geography from the University of Paris-VIII, told the Global Times that France's long tradition of diplomacy and openness to international relations and its early recognition of the economic potential of China as an expanding market and as an important trading partner made France the first major Western country to establish diplomatic relations with China.
