Macron: ‘We need China’

In an interview with the newspaper La Tribune Dimanche, French President Emmanuel Macron calls for a reset of relations with China. Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in Paris on Sunday for a five-day visit to Europe.

‘Aggiornamento.’ In conversation with the French newspaper La Tribune Dimanche, President Emmanuel Macron, for once, does not use French, but also a word of Italian. With the term – Italian for ‘renewal’ and which became a household name during the modernization of the Catholic Church in the 1970s – the French president describes his hopes for how relations with China will evolve in the coming years.

Macron receives Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Elysee and takes him to the Pyrenees, where the French president spent part of his childhood in his grandmother’s house. The last time Macron was in China, after Xi took him to a residence that once belonged to his own father.

A lot has changed since then. In recent years, the European view of China has hardened considerably. Following the example of the United States, Europe increasingly views the Chinese as disruptors in the global economy and geopolitical balance. This is reflected in various investigations into unlawful state subsidies, including in the field of electric cars.

Although Macron dares to take a strict stance, Xi’s visit seems to be the moment for a charm offensive. The French president wants to present Europe as the way Xi can maintain ties with the West if relations with the US deteriorate. “I absolutely do not want to move further away from China,” he told La Tribune. ‘Whether it concerns climate or security, we need the Chinese.

For example, according to Macron, the fact that the Paris climate agreement could be concluded was only possible because Xi Jinping and Barack Obama got along at the time. “It is the task of France and Europe today to be the balancing force that keeps China in the international discussion on such major issues.”

But for such a good band a ‘aggiornamento‘ is necessary, a renewal of the view on China, in which economic reciprocity and economic security are also taken more into account. ‘In Europe we sometimes disagree because some players still mainly see China as a sales market. I call for a change of course because China has overcapacity in many areas and exports en masse to Europe.’

According to Chinese state media, Xi Jinping will also meet Commission President Von der Leyen in Paris. He then travels to Serbia and Hungary, two countries where Chinese companies are strongly represented. Their political leaders are outspokenly pro-Russian, thus distancing themselves from the EU’s official position.

Hungarian government leader Viktor Orbán was reluctant for a long time to approve the latest European aid package for Ukraine, worth 50 billion. Ultimately he changed tack. Serbia has been a candidate country since 2012.