War in Ukraine, economic interests, Xi Jinping’s visit to France interests our neighbors. The German press notes the absence of the German chancellor. Poland hopes that the French president will firmly support Ukraine against his Chinese counterpart.
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The Chinese president is still in France on Tuesday May 7, 2024, and this visit is attracting the attention of our European neighbors. The Correspondents’ Club makes a first stopover in Germany where the media wonder about the absence of Olaf Scholz during this visit when there would have been many topics for discussion. They also believe that the French president’s approach towards China is firmer than that of the German chancellor.
Second stop in Poland, where the Chinese president’s visit to Paris raises a lot of questions, with the war in Ukraine at the top of the list. Poland hopes that, when the time comes to discuss the conflict, France will not make concessions and will not forget the Ukrainians.
Germany: Olaf Scholz declines the invitation from the Élysée
Citing a trip to the Baltic countries, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declined the invitation from the Élysée to participate in this meeting with the Chinese president. THE South German Zeitung underlines that in 2019, Angela Merkel was present in Paris to meet Xi Jinping. The Spiegel seems to regret this absence. “There would have been many topics of discussion, starting with the recent affair of Chinese spies”, notes the weekly which also evokes the intimate moment to which the French president invited Xi Jinping to the summit of Tourmalet, where he spent his vacation with his grandmother. France’s response to China, while in 2023, Xi Jinping invited Emmanuel Macron to the tea ceremony in the former residence of his father’s governor.
The German media are also wondering whether this visit by the Chinese president does not risk undermining European unity. THE Spiegel recalls that in 2019, China still appeared to be a haven of economic peace in the face of Donald Trump’s erratic policies. But since then, the health crisis, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the trade war with Europe and the espionage scandals have happened. There Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) points out that Beijing likes nothing more than to sow discord within the EU. Hence these questions: “Will Europe manage to demonstrate cohesion despite difficult conditions? Or will it allow itself to be divided once again by China?”
The relative firmness of Emmanuel Macron
While Germany is too easily dazzled by China, according to an editorialist, Emmanuel Macron remains in favor of a firm economic line against Beijing. A sinologist interviewed by the FAZ estimate that “Olaf Scholz’s approach to China is full of apprehension, while Macron is aware of the economic leverage of the European Union”. The French president intends to plead Ukraine’s cause to his guest, but warns in the The Tageszeitung (TAZ): “We should not expect many concessions from Xi Jinping”.
Poland: the war in Ukraine remains the concern
Poland hopes that Emmanuel Macron will firmly support Ukraine against his Chinese counterpart. The French president is even spoken of as “the biggest hawk in the European Union” in this war. But when the time comes to talk about the conflict with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin’s biggest ally, the Poles hope that France will stand its ground.
We inevitably expect Emmanuel Macron to have the fate of the Poles in mind when debating with his Chinese guest. As he mentioned during his appearance on television in March 2024, “The security of Europe and the French is at stake there. If Russia wins, the lives of the French will change and Europe’s credibility will be reduced to zero. Do you think that the Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, Romanians, Latvians, Bulgarians could stay in peace for a second?” If the discussions also revolve around economic issues, Poland hopes that France will not make concessions and will not forget the Ukrainians.
Visit to Serbia and Hungary closely scrutinized
For Warsaw, Xi Jinping’s visit to Serbia and Hungary is all the more important as these are countries close to Poland and China’s presence there is increasingly significant. But what concerns the Poles is the date chosen by the Chinese President to visit Serbia. It will take place on the occasion of the commemorations of the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese embassy by NATO planes during the Kosovo war. A symbolic date which shows how far China is from NATO and that it has nevertheless remained in the Russian camp. A date which does not really symbolize China’s rapprochement with the European Union in the context of the war in Ukraine.