Xi Jinping’s visit to France ends with joint declaration with Macron on Middle East and a number of business deals with French firms
In 2019, when Xi last visited the Elysee, he heard similar complaints about the trade imbalance from Macron, German chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker. And the Chinese leader issued some of the same bromides about Beijing’s commitment to a multipolar world and how China and the EU should advance together.
It was in 2019 that the EU devised the so-called triptych that defined China as a partner for co-operation, an economic competitor and a systemic rival. The following year the coronavirus pandemic and China’s secretive response fuelled European doubts about Beijing as a partner.
Xi said that China had no part in the war and warned against using the crisis to “throw the responsibility on a third party, and call for a new Cold War”. He made no public commitment to take part in next month’s peace conference in Switzerland, to which Russia has not been invited, but joined Macron in calling for a truce in all conflicts for the Olympic Games, which starts at the end of July.