After ten hours of flight, the President of the Republic arrived in Beijing (China) this Wednesday morning. Emmanuel Macron is received there for a three-day official visit. An intense program awaits him, which began with a speech to the French community.
“More and more, we hear voices rising and concluding that there is a form of irresistible spiral of growing tensions” between France, the European Union and China, began the president. “In our conversation with the world, China has a very special place for us”, he continued, pointing out to the French in China that “the accumulation of powers” commercial, economic, military of the China, “has transformed this country”.
“You have seen him change, including in his self-awareness, over the past fifteen to twenty years,” he told the audience, repeating how “dialogue with China is essential”.
A journey in 2019
Thursday, the French head of state will have a day of discussions with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, to which the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will be partly associated, to obtain from China that it weighs in favor of the peace in Ukraine with Russia, fifteen days after the very symbolic trip of the Chinese autocrat to Moscow. The evening will be marked by a state dinner which promises to be sumptuous.
While the French president intended to come “at least once a year” to China, his last trip dates back to 2019: the Covid-19 and the draconian health restrictions which were not lifted until the end of 2022 by the authorities. Chinese have long frozen relations, and tested the French residing in China.
Paris is therefore betting on “reconnection” at all levels and wants to relaunch human exchanges, in particular those between students from the two countries, and tourism. China only allowed its nationals to return to France and 40 other countries on March 15. Cultural links will also be highlighted.
Jean-Jacques Annaud and Jean-Michel Jarre
Emmanuel Macron is due to inaugurate the Franco-Chinese festival “Croisements” in the evening, presented as the largest foreign festival in China. This is why he is accompanied by the director Jean-Jacques Annaud and the musician Jean-Michel Jarre, the first Western artist to have performed in China, in 1981, after the cultural revolution. Jarre came with his wife, Chinese actress Gong Li.
If it promised to raise the issue of human rights, particularly in the Xinjiang region, which according to several observers is the prey of a strong repression against Uyghur Muslims, the French delegation has also taken on board more than 50 business leaders, including the leaders of ‘Airbus, EDF, Alstom or even Veolia. Contracts must be signed Thursday, “in all areas”. Aeronautics, major carriers, tech, luxury, automotive, carbon-free energy… 2,000 French companies have been established “for a long time” in China, welcomed the president.
The president has very little addressed the theme of the environment, which was however that of his state trip in 2019, marked by his famous phrase, “Make our planet great again” declined in Cantonese.
Emmanuel Macron will end his visit to Canton on Friday, where he will have an exchange with Chinese students and a new dinner with Xi Jinping, more intimate than that of the day before.