Reuters. French President Emmanuel Macron landed in Beijing on Wednesday (April 5) for his first state visit to China in over three years.
Macron has said that during his three-day visit, he is keen to stress to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, who he will meet alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday (April 6), that Europe will not accept China providing arms to Russia. He also hopes to talk trade and economic ties with Chinese leaders.
Macron invited von der Leyen on the trip as a way to project European unity, after French officials criticised German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for going solo to China late last year.
Macron has pushed the European Union (EU) to be more robust in trade relations with China, the French president's advisers said, but he has publicly refrained from using strong anti-China rhetoric with Beijing being prone to bilateral retaliatory measures.
Since Macron's last visit in 2019, China's strict pandemic controls forced all diplomatic meetings online as relations with Europe soured: first due to a stalled investment pact in 2021 and then Beijing's refusal to condemn Russia over the war in Ukraine.
