Xi Jinping has lauded China’s ties with France as a model for the international community as he arrived in Paris amid threats of a trade war over Chinese electric cars and French cognac.
On his first visit to the EU in five years, China’s president will meet his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who will urge him to reduce trade imbalances and use his influence with Russia over the war in Ukraine.
Ahead of the visit, Macron told the French newspaper La Tribune that an update of relations was necessary “because China now has excess capacity in many areas and exports massively to Europe”.
In September 2023 the EU launched an investigation into whether to impose punitive tariffs to protect EU producers against cheaper Chinese electric vehicle (EV) imports that it says are benefiting from state subsidies.
On Sunday night, Von der Leyen signalled the EU’s continued discontent with China, which she said was “currently manufacturing with massive subsidies”. An oversupply of cars and steel due to weak demand at home was leading to unfair trade and unacceptable market distorting practices, said Von der Leyen, that “could lead to deindustrialiasion in Europe” and loss of jobs, particularly in the German car industry.
Macron will try to talk Xi out of retaliating over the EV investigation, potentially with import duties on French cognac and agricultural goods.
The EU is also expected to raise suspicions that sanctions on exports to Russia are being circumvented by Chinese companies trading with its neighbour. They believe multinationals based in Asia are selling legitimately into Hong Kong and mainland China but the destination of the goods is Russia.
Xi, who was welcomed in Paris by the French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, said in a statement released on his arrival that ties between China and France were “a model for the international community of peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation between countries with different social systems”.
In a separate op-ed published in the French daily Le Figaro, the Chinese president said he was coming to France with three messages: that Beijing was committed to opening up “new vistas” in its relationship with France, opening up “ever wider” to the world, and to upholding world peace and stability.
“While opening up itself, China also encourages Chinese companies to go global,” Xi wrote. “France is advancing reindustrialisation based on green innovation, whereas China is accelerating the development of new quality productive forces.”
On the war in Ukraine, he wrote that China “understands the repercussions of the Ukraine crisis on the people of Europe”. He emphasised that Beijing was not “a party to or a participant in it”, adding that “China has been playing a constructive role in striving for peaceful settlement of the crisis”.
Xi’s six-day visit to Europe is the first since 2019 and will also see him visit Serbia and Hungary. The latter is hoping to become the European hub of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturing after BYD in 2023 sealed a deal for its first EV factory in Europe.
One of Macron’s key priorities will be to warn Xi of the danger of backing Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, with western officials concerned Moscow is already using Chinese machine tools in arms production.
The west wants China above all not to supply weapons to Russia and risk tipping the balance in the conflict.
“It is in our interest to get China to weigh in on the stability of the international order,” said Macron in an interview with the Economist published on Thursday.
“We must, therefore, work with China to build peace.”
China opened an anti-dumping investigation into brandy imported from the European Union in January, sparking fears cognac could suffer a similar blow to that taken by Australian wine when China introduced tariffs of more than 200%.
“We want to obtain reciprocity of exchanges and have the elements of our economic security taken into account,” Macron told La Tribune.
Von der Leyen said on Monday: “We have to act to make sure that competition is fair and not distorted. I have made clear that the current imbalances in market access are not sustainable and need to be addressed”.
The European Commission, the European Union’s authority on trade issues, has opened more than 20 competition probes targeting China in recent months including into the supply of cars, wind turbines and medical devices.
Beijing has reacted furiously to the most recent investigation, into suspected inequitable access to China’s medical devices market, calling it a sign of EU “protectionism”.
The EU’s 27 members – in particular France and Germany – are divided on their attitude towards China.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will not join Macron and Xi in Paris due to prior commitments, according to sources.
“In Europe, we are not unanimous on the subject because certain players still see China as essentially a market of opportunities,” Macron said, without naming any countries.
France will also seek to make progress on opening the Chinese market to its agricultural exports and resolve issues around the French cosmetic industry’s concerns about intellectual property rights, officials have said.
China may announce an order for about 50 Airbus aircraft during Xi’s visit, but it remains uncertain whether it will be a new deal, people familiar with the negotiations have said.
On Tuesday, Macron will take Xi to the Pyrenees, a mountainous region dear to the French president as the birthplace of his maternal grandmother, before Xi heads to Serbia and Hungary.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
