French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday for a visit during which he hoped to strengthen ties with China and convince it not to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
An official from Macron’s office told reporters before the three-day trip that the French president will try to maintain his position on Ukraine during meetings with his counterpart Xi Jinping and offer “another path” away from the directly aggressive tone frequently heard from Washington.
The French president wants to maintain and rebalance China’s trading connections with Europe. In addition to defending French interests in the Asia-Pacific area, where Paris sees itself as a player through its overseas territories and military installations,
Macron is set to land in Beijing at around 3:30 pm. First, he is likely to meet French residents in the capital before starting his engagements on Thursday with the Chinese leaders and attending a state dinner in the evening.
President Macron will go to southern China’s city of Guangzhou to interact with local students on Friday. A delegation of top politicians, business leaders, and celebrities, including composer Jean-Michel Jarre, will be accompanied by him.
France hopes its vast economic zone and 7,000 deployed troops can lend it a seat at the table as tensions rise on numerous fronts, particularly with nuclear-armed North Korea and between China and the United States over the self-governing island of Taiwan.
If France wishes to be considered seriously as a regional actor, Perrin contends that it “must reiterate a strong and realistic posture towards China, especially about the need to respect international law.”
Macron’s visit, which is his first in four years, falls on the same day as Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have a contentious meeting in California on Wednesday.
China has been consistently saying that Taiwan is its territory, to be regained by force if necessary.