cognac, poems by Victor Hugo… Here is the list of gifts offered by France to the Chinese leader

Paris hopes in particular to obtain the lifting of the investigation by the Chinese authorities into cognac, for an alleged infringement of competition. The Chinese president will leave with exceptional bottles.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, May 6, 2024 at the Elysée Palace.  (SARAH MEYSSONNIER / AFP)

Paris already imagines the Chinese president sipping cognac while reading Victor Hugo. On the occasion of his state visit to France, Xi Jinping received several diplomatic gifts on Monday May 6, a list of which France Télévisions obtained from the Elysée.

It starts with reading, with both parts of the Contemplations written by Victor Hugo, Formerly And Todayin an 1856 edition, Chez Michel Lévy Frères et Pagnerre, as well as Notre Dame de Paris, translated into Chinese. Xi Jinping will also leave with the first Franco-Chinese dictionary in history, published in 1742. Another present: a vase flattened on two sides, sculpted, and made of multilayer glass. This unique piece, made in the Amboise art glassworks, is signed by the glass blower Pierre Gallou, specifies the Elysée.

Xi Jinping also received a box of houses LVMH/Hennessy and Moutai, with a bottle of Hennessy XO cognac and another of biujiu, a Chinese alcohol, called Moutai Flying Fairy. The presentation of these two bottles, a token of Franco-Chinese friendship, is far from trivial. During the leaders’ joint press conference, Emmanuel Macron spoke of the “wish” of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping not to “see apply” THE “provisional measures” targeting French cognac, which is the subject of an anti-dumping investigation in China. DWith this in mind, one last gift was added, and not the least: a carafe of Louis XIII cognac from Rémy Martin. No doubt to finally convince the Chinese leader of the merits of the French spirit.


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