French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen want to persuade China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping to influence Russia.
The Chinese achieved their goal of playing a leading role on the global political stage when Russian troops invaded Ukraine at the latest. When French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hold conferences with China’s head of state and party leader, Xi Jinping, tomorrow, Thursday, the focus will not be on bilateral relations, but on the options available to the People’s Republic influence Russia. And these are huge, because the attack on Ukraine has cut Moscow off from Western money and know-how – and it is more dependent on China than ever.
“Constructive influence” desired
As a result, in the run-up to the visit, both in Paris and in Brussels, every effort was made to commit Xi to the role of peace mediator and responsible member of the international community. “China is able to influence Russia constructively,” said von der Leyen to the “Financial Times” shortly before her departure, while in Paris the special position of China compared to Russia was also positively emphasized. After the vague Chinese assurances that they want to work for peace in Ukraine, the Europeans are hoping for more concrete proposals and will point out in Beijing that the war will have negative effects on the EU economy – and thus indirectly on China, because the Europeans are the most important trading partners of the People’s Republic.