Xi Jinping visits Europe with a program of events that is a manifesto on what he thinks of the continent. His first visit is to France, because Emmanuel Macron can always be ripped off by a discordant statement with Washington and there is nothing that makes him happier than to see that the West speaks with several voices. He then moves to Serbia, where he commemorates, together with the autocrat Alexander Vucic, the 25th anniversary of the mistaken bombing of his embassy in Belgrade by NATO.
China compensates with investments and infrastructure for the warmth of Serbia, as it also does with Hungary, Xi's final destination in Europe. He will spend three days there with Viktor Orbán, a man who has set himself the goal of delegitimizing liberal Europe.
Hungary and Serbia are Russia's friends in the invasion of Ukraine, as is China. Macron and Ursula Von der Leyen have asked Xi to help them contain Vladimir Putin. But he won't. China is a crucial support for Russia, supplying it with components and machinery for its war industry.
For Xi Jinping, Europe is a battlefield in which he competes for hegemony with the United States and where he has as allies illiberal democracies, which he sees as legitimate as the governments that emerged from elections. Xi is not fooling anyone. The general secretary of the PCCH truly believes that the State must be the main player in the economy, that the market must be limited and that individual freedoms are a secondary issue. He thinks that the US is in decline and distrusts its model, based on consumption and services.
From the Anglo-Saxon world the idea that China has reached its ceiling is spreading. But this may be a mistake. China's power is irreversible, systemic, military and technological.
Xi Jinping wants Europe not to close the doors to its exports. Not like the US, with whom it has a trade war. China needs to sell its electric cars and solar technology, sectors in which it dominates but suffers from overproduction. China warns that protectionism is not good for anyone. That there is room for everyone. But this is not entirely true. In order for it to be, China must open its markets. And give some security guarantees to Europe that it is not in a position to do right now.
