Macron and Von der Leyen land in China to distance Xi Jinping from the Kremlin

Emmanuel Macron is in China. The French President landed in Beijing early Wednesday morning accompanied by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to begin a three-day official visit that will take them to meet with the all-powerful Chinese President, Xi Jinping, and his recently appointed Prime Minister, Li Qiang, in a context still marked by the war in Ukraine and the apparent alliance between Beijing and Moscow. The European tandem will try to convince Xi to use his influence over Vladimir Putin's Russia to stop the invasion.  

Macron will be the second European leader to meet the Chinese president after Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who urged Xi during his visit to Beijing last week to talk to Zelenski about his peace proposal. In contrast to Sánchez and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Elysée Palace tenant invited the Commission president for what is expected to be a crucial trip to gauge the EU's approach to relations with the Asian giant in the coming months. Xi will receive them on Thursday.  

With Von der Leyen's attendance, Macron aims to project an image of unity of action within the EU-27, to reinforce his profile as the continent's political leader - a leadership that has been vacant since Angela Merkel's retirement - and, in passing, to send a wake-up call to Scholz, who decided to travel alone to Beijing a few weeks after Xi's unopposed revalidation as general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CCP), the launch pad to certify his third term at the head of the country. 

Von der Leyen, on the other hand, had already made her position clear before the trip. She was particularly critical of China's role in her speech in Brussels a week ago. "The way in which China continues to react to the war waged by Putin will be a decisive factor for the future of relations between the EU and China", warned the President of the Commission, aware of the economic interests of the Asian giant on the continent and the role that the institution she presides over can play in modulating these variables. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, pointed out on Wednesday that the European Union needs and wants to develop "a constructive engagement with China to resolve global challenges".  

The EU's High Representative for Foreign Policy will visit Beijing on the 13th, 14th and 15th of this month. Just a week before that, Macron and Von der Leyen will have three days to reconfigure their relations with the new leadership of the Chinese government after the lifting of the severe restrictions implemented in the framework of the Covid zero policy. Restrictions that have kept China isolated over the past three years and which it is now trying to rebuild with all its might.  

In a detail that symbolises the good relations on both sides of the Atlantic, despite the disagreements on certain fundamental aspects, Macron had a telephone conversation with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, before taking off for Beijing. "The two heads of state spoke of their common will to engage China to accelerate the end of the war in Ukraine and to participate in building a lasting peace in the region," the Elysee said in the statement.

"China's interest is that there should not be a war that lasts," Macron said on his first visit to China more than three years later. The Elysée tenant believes that it is not in Beijing's interest to supply arms to the Russian army for its offensive in Ukraine because the action would make it complicit in a flagrant violation of international law. China is "one of the few countries, if not the only one" that could have a decisive impact on the conflict in Ukraine, "in one way or another", acknowledged an adviser to the French president before the visit in statements reported by the daily Le Monde. 

The fear that China will follow Iran's lead and send weapons to Russia "has been expressed by many and we express it too", Macron said. But the embattled French head of state, who is going through his lowest hours since his re-election in April last year over a controversial pension reform that has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets against him, also said he would not threaten to impose sanctions because "threatening is never a good way to compromise". On the other hand, Macron was keen to make a good-natured reference to the controversial 12-point draft drawn up by Chinese diplomacy that envisages a halt to hostilities in Ukraine: "This is about a willingness to take responsibility and to try to build a path towards peace".  

For Macron, dialogue with China is "essential". China can "play an important role" in resolving the conflict given its "close relationship with Russia, which has been reaffirmed in recent days", he remarked, referring to Xi's official visit to Moscow in mid-March. The Chinese leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin sealed their "friendship without limits" in a reception with pomp and pageantry in the corridors of the Kremlin. Macron urged against a 'logic of blocs' in the face of concerns about future relations between China and the West.