Xi Jinping is expected to arrive in Paris on Monday, May 6, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and the People's Republic of China with French President Emmanuel Macron. The Chinese president will take advantage of his first trip to Europe in five years to visit two other European countries: Serbia and Hungary.
These destinations are no coincidence. In Paris, Xi will once again flatter his interlocutors, insisting on the "special relationship" that has united France and China since Charles de Gaulle recognized the People's Republic. He is sure to praise France's "strategic autonomy" from the US. In Belgrade, he will denounce the bombing of the Chinese embassy by NATO on May 7, 1999, with Washington pleading an error. The tragedy had angered Beijing, and propaganda continues to exploit it to denounce "American imperialism." In Hungary, finally, he will highlight Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is constantly seeking to weaken Europe from within and is conciliatory toward Vladimir Putin.
China likes to claim that it wants a "strong Europe." Nothing could be further from the truth. Its aim is to weaken Western democracies, thereby undermining the transatlantic relationship as much as possible, and even the European Union itself. In 2012, it launched its "17+1" summit in an attempt to lure the countries of Central and Eastern Europe away from Brussels. Fortunately, this initiative fizzled out.
Counterproductive
Macron is no fool. Since 2019, he has systematically included European officials in his meetings with China's number one, whether in Paris or in China. And rightly so. Faced with the world's second-largest power, which Europeans now describe as a "systemic rival," France has no interest in going it alone and pandering to its Chinese counterpart. Only a united Europe has any chance of being heard by Beijing. And even then, not in all areas.
It is counterproductive to continue to believe that China is neutral in Russia's war against Ukraine. As the Russian president's forthcoming trip to Beijing will once again demonstrate – Putin is due to make his first foreign visit to China after being re-elected president on May 7 – the two regimes have forged a genuine informal alliance. While China refrains from selling arms to Moscow, it does supply it with the equipment it needs to modernize its defense industry.
In recognizing Communist China, de Gaulle had declared: "There is nothing in this decision which implies the slightest approval of the political system which now dominates China (...) France simply recognizes the world as it is." Sixty years on, this statement remains perfectly valid. The place China has taken in world affairs in the meantime makes it even more pertinent.
Not talking to China isn't a solution. But neither is treating Xi as a friend. Macron, who invited his Chinese counterpart to the Hautes-Pyrénées, southern France, on May 7, should be under no illusions. This "intimate" part of the trip will do no more for France and Europe than Putin's visit to the Fort de Brégançon in 2019.