Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen landed in Beijing on Wednesday with a dense agenda to tackle and one goal above all: to induce Chinese leaders to use their vast influence over Moscow to end their war in Ukraine.
The French president had not visited the Asian colossus since 2019, before the covid epidemic. Macron has traveled accompanied by the president of the European Commission. This is a gesture to show that the EU countries act in harmony and do not allow themselves to be divided. But in reality, the presence of Von der Leyen creates certain tensions with the hosts because the head of the Community Executive, in a recent speech in Brussels, was very harsh with China's dominating and hegemonic vocation in multiple areas and threatened to reassess diplomatic relations. and economic relations of the EU with Beijing, including a stricter control of its investments in Europe.
Macron began his stay with a speech before the French community in which he highlighted the sacrifices they had to endure during the pandemic due to strict Chinese regulations. The head of state admitted that the relationship between the EU and China is one of "rivalry", but this should not prevent them from cooperating on vital issues such as maintaining peace or fighting challenges such as the climate emergency.
"It is absolutely obvious that we disagree on China's political system," the French president said. At the same time, he insisted that one of the goals of the trip is to talk with the Chinese leadership "to try to find a path of peace" for Ukraine. Macron is confident that, despite its proximity to Moscow, the Chinese role will be based on its traditional attitude of respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states.
Before the trip, Elysée sources had spoken even more clearly than Macron about high expectations. In the French presidency they consider that "China is the only country in the world in a position to have an immediate and radical impact on the evolution of the conflict (in Ukraine)". For the Elysee, the Asian nation is the key factor for the war to evolve "in one direction or another"; that is, for Russia to consolidate its territorial gains or for Ukraine to restore its sovereignty on the borders it had in 1991.
Chinese diplomacy has suggested that Macron's and the EU's hopes for a positive Chinese role may be justified. In a long and surprising interview with The New York Times, the Chinese ambassador to the EU, Fu Cong, indicated that the West may have overestimated the ties between Beijing and Moscow. Fu downplayed President Xi Jinping's statement, three weeks before the invasion, that the Sino-Russian relationship was "without limits." According to the ambassador, this expression is pure rhetoric and what he is saying is that China has not provided military aid to Russia nor has it officially recognized the annexation of the conquered territories (the Crimean peninsula and part of the Donbass).
Fu also downplayed the fact that Xi has not yet called his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. The ambassador recalled that his president "is very busy" and that, in any case, there are frequent contacts at a lower level between the two countries. "I know that people are obsessed with the presidential call," Fu added to the American newspaper. The fact that President Xi is not talking to Zelensky does not mean that China is on Russia's side on the Ukrainian issue."
The most important day of political meetings will be this Thursday. Macron will have meetings with the president of the National People's Congress, Zhao Leji, with the new prime minister, Li Qiang, and with president Xi Jinping. There will also be a meeting of the Franco-Chinese business council. In the evening, the state dinner and the important trilateral meeting are scheduled with the presence of Ursula von der Leyen. Macron and the president of the Commission met last Monday in Paris to coordinate this appointment.
On Friday Macron will be in Guangzhou, one of the most dynamic cities in China and where France opened its first consulate in Chinese territory in the 18th century. Xi is closely tied to Guangzhou because his father ran his province in the 1980s, when major reforms took place, and because his wife often sang in her operas. At Sun Yat Sen University, the French president will hold a discussion before a thousand students, a rather unusual act in the visit of a foreign leader to China.
