Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen landed in Beijing on Thursday with a dense agenda of topics to tackle and one goal above all: to induce Chinese leaders to use their great influence over Moscow to end the war in Ukraine .
The French president had not visited the Asian colossus since 2019, before the covid epidemic. Macron was accompanied by the president of the European Commission. It is a gesture to show that the countries of the EU 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 domineering and hegemonic vocation in multiple areas and threatened to reassess the EU's diplomatic and economic relations with Beijing, including stricter control of investments in Europe.
Macron began the stay with an intervention before the French community in which he highlighted the sacrifices they had endured during the pandemic due to the strict Chinese rules. The Head of State admitted that the relationship between the EU and China is one of "rivalry", but this should not prevent cooperation on vital issues such as peacekeeping or the fight against challenges, such as the climate emergency.
"It is absolutely obvious that we disagree about China's political system," said the French president. At the same time, he insisted that one of the goals of the trip is to speak with the Chinese leaders "to try to find a path of peace" for Ukraine. Macron is confident that, despite the proximity to Moscow, the Chinese role is based on its traditional attitude of respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states. Before the trip, Elysée sources had spoken even more bluntly than Macron about the 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 (Ukraine) conflict". For 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 relativized President Xi Jinging'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 counts 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 highlighted 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 people are obsessed with the presidential call," Fu added to the US newspaper. The fact that President Xi is not talking to Zelenskiy does not mean that China is on Russia's side on the Ukrainian issue."
The most important day of political appointments will be today, Thursday. Macron will have meetings with the president of the National People's Assembly, Zhao Leji; with the new Prime Minister, Li Qiang, and with President Xi Jinping, as well as a meeting of the Franco-Chinese business council. In the evening, the State dinner and the important trilateral meeting with the presence of Ursula von der Leyen are planned. and the President of the Commission met on Monday in Paris to coordinate this meeting.
On Friday, Macron will be in Canton, one of China's most dynamic cities and where France opened its first consulate in China in the 18th century. Xi has strong ties to Canton because his father led the province in the 1980s, when major reforms took place, and because his wife frequently sang in his operas. At Sun Yat Sen University, the French president will give a talk in front of a thousand students, a rather unusual act for a foreign leader visiting China.
