2024-04-30 23:25:31
Chinese President Xi Jinping is traveling to EU countries for the first time in five years to show that Beijing offers far more economic opportunities to them than the United States admits.
As Day.Az reports with reference to RBC, Bloomberg reported this.
“Xi Jinping intends to drive a wedge between Europe and the United States,” the agency titled the publication.
Xi Jinping will begin his five-day tour on May 5 to France, Serbia and Hungary, which are counting on Chinese investment. According to agency sources, French President Emmanuel Macron intends to deepen his personal ties with the Chinese leader during his two-day trip to France and ask him to persuade Vladimir Putin to end the conflict in Ukraine. Macron is also keen to attract Chinese investment in the country’s production of electric vehicle batteries.
As the interlocutors said, the French leader is going to invite his colleague to dinner at the Elysee Palace, and the menu may include French cognac, which has become the subject of an anti-dumping investigation in China.
“French President Emmanuel Macron is offering Xi the opportunity to engage in dialogue with a leading EU power that has proven its willingness to pursue a more independent path,” said Chong Ja Yang, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. He connects the trip of the head of China with an attempt “to attract those European countries that, in Xi’s opinion, could be more sympathetic to his position.” A trilateral meeting between Xi Jinping, Macron and EC President Ursula von der Leyen is also planned.
“I think this is part of an attempt to convince Europeans that there are better options and that a better relationship is possible,” said Duncan Freeman, a lecturer on China-European relations at the Brussels School of Management.
Xi’s visit to Europe comes weeks after U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China to warn of risks to the global economy from China’s overcapacity.
When a Chinese leader last visited the EU in 2019, the economies of China and the eurozone were roughly the same size. Now China is almost 15% superior, Bloomberg notes.
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