The French President, Emmanuel Macron, appealed this Thursday, 4th, to the efforts of his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to end the war in Ukraine and correct trade imbalances, at the beginning of a state visit to China.
“We must continue to mobilize for peace and stability in the world. And from Ukraine to the different regions of the world affected by war, our ability to work together is decisive,” said Macron after a restricted meeting with the Chinese head of state and before extended discussions.
“We know that we have many points in common, sometimes we have disagreements, but we have a responsibility to know how to overcome them, to find cooperation and dispute resolution mechanisms for an effective multilateralism in which we believe,” added the French leader.
Xi assured, for his part, that China intends to cooperate with France to “eliminate any interference” and “make the overall strategic partnership between China and France more stable”.
Macron also called for the growth of “cross-investments” between the two countries, to rebalance the commercial relationship, and defended cooperation within the G7 towards economic governance based on “rules”.
The Chinese President, accompanied by his wife, Peng Liyuan, received Macron and his wife, Brigitte, at the People’s Palace, where the two leaders listened to the national anthems and reviewed the troops, before being greeted by children.
The French head of state, who arrived in Beijing on Wednesday night, accompanied by 35 leaders of large business groups (including Airbus, EDF and Danone) and family companies, from the luxury to the agri-food sector, is expected to attend the signing of a series of contracts.
Macron intends to address Chinese trade practices that Paris considers unfair, from the automobile sector to steel.
The relationship between China and the European Union is characterized by a huge trade deficit (357.1 billion dollars, 306.3 billion euros) to the detriment of the EU.
Paris is also committed to pressuring China to invest more in France, and accept a sharing of technologies comparable to that practiced by Europeans, which has contributed to Beijing’s economic growth.
Another sensitive issue is access to rare metals, whose global production and transformation is dominated by China, a lever that Beijing used in 2025, in the midst of a trade war with the United States, shaking up the planet’s supply chains.
This is Emmanuel Macron’s fourth state visit to China since being elected President in 2017. Xi Jinping was welcomed to France in 2024 and the Elysee presents the time Xi will spend with Macron until Friday, including private meetings, as a sign of the importance of the Sino-French relationship.
“We have a constant expectation regarding China: It is that it will use its influence with Russia to get it to stop the war” in Ukraine, on the doorstep of the European Union, says Eliseu.
China has reiterated that it wants peace, but has never condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia’s fundamental economic and political partner, the Asian giant is the world’s largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, including petroleum products, thus fueling the war machine. Europeans also accuse Beijing of supplying military components to Moscow.
During his previous trip to Beijing, in 2023, Macron called on Xi to “call Russia to reason”.
The Chinese President reserved privileged treatment for his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in September, inviting him, together with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to be present at the military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
As in France in 2024, the two presidential couples will meet on Friday in a more informal setting in Chengdu, in the province of Sichuan (southwest), birthplace of the giant pandas that have become China’s ambassadors around the world.