The Frenchman also intends to meet compatriots living in the Middle Kingdom, to visit the metropolis of Guangzhou in the company of the Chinese leader and to speak to students from Sun Yat-sen University there.
At the same time, Macron will take more than 50 French entrepreneurs and senior executives with him in the hope of signing a number of lucrative contracts with China. In particular, representatives of the energy company EDF, the Alstom railway and the highly publicized Veolia will arrive with Macron. Particular hopes are placed on Airbus, which wants to conclude a new contract with Beijing in addition to the 300 aircraft previously ordered by the Chinese.
The commercial and economic aspect is extremely important for Macron: he does not want to sacrifice beneficial cooperation with Beijing for the narrow Brussels line of deepening the confrontation with China. Moreover, the Frenchman does not want to lag behind his main European competitor – Germany, whose Chancellor Scholz flew to China in November last year. By the way, Macron then wanted to keep a colleague company, but the German said a categorical “no”.
Another high priority on Macron’s agenda is, of course, Ukraine and everything related to it. We know that the French president wants to persuade Xi Jinping to play an active mediating role in the conflict and to exert at least some pressure on Russia.
Macron also hopes the Chinese will show at least a hint of concern about the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus. Macron will visit China with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The official motivation is coordination and unity of action within the EU: apparently the calculation is that it will be more convenient to pressure Xi in tandem.
That von der Leyen is the “fifth wheel” of Macron’s cart is made clear by his statements a week ago during his keynote address on China.
There, the European official accused Beijing of tightening its strategic line, its aggressive policy, its commercial and economic pressure and of spreading misinformation. She also accompanied this with outright blackmail, saying that China’s position on the conflict in Ukraine will be a decisive factor for the development of interaction between Brussels and Beijing.
After such remarks, von der Leyen’s visit to China generally turns out to be unreasonable: there is objectively nothing for Beijing to negotiate with her.
In the meantime, the Western press has no illusions about the prospects of Macron’s trip either. White House officials told Politico they do not believe the event will succeed. However, the Global Times stresses the importance of Macron’s visit and hopes that the French leader’s trip will lead to further strengthening of bilateral cooperation.
