BEIJING/PARIS: French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna is set to meet the Chinese leadership in Beijing on Friday as she seeks to soothe ties after the launch of a European Union anti-subsidy probe backed by Paris into Chinese-made electric vehicles.
Colonna’s visit to the Chinese capital, centred around a dialogue with her counterpart Wang Yi on people-to-people exchanges, is likely to be overshadowed by trade issues in the wake of the EV investigation, which Beijing has blasted as “protectionist”.
It also comes shortly before a visit by the European Commission and Council presidents, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, to Beijing in early December for the first in-person summit with President Xi Jinping in four years, after China-EU relations nosedived during the pandemic.
French President Emmanuel Macron has argued the EU should stop being naive and demand a level playing field with countries like China, and had been pushing the European Commission behind the scenes to launch the probe.
“The minister will speak of the desire of the EU to further assert its sovereignty in economic matters and to ensure that exchanges with China are more balanced,” said a French diplomatic source on condition of anonymity.
The source added that France supports the European Commission probe “without naivety”.
China is France’s third-largest trade partner, but French and other European firms are deeply concerned about China’s vast trade imbalance with the EU, its opaque legislation on cross-border data transfers and cheap Chinese EVs flooding the European market, threatening domestic carmakers.
France is also concerned about Chinese attempts to force French cosmetics companies to share manufacturing secrets with Chinese parties.
Xi insisted that China welcomes investment from French firms in a telephone call on Monday with Macron, who urged fair treatment for foreign companies in China.
European officials have repeatedly vowed to reduce economic dependencies on China in critical sectors - otherwise known as “de-risking” - in the face of what the G7 calls China’s “economic coercion”.
France is China’s top source of cosmetics and wine imports, according to China’s customs agency, with French luxury titans such as LMVH particularly dependent on Chinese consumers. The lack of a strong rebound in luxury demand following China’s post-pandemic re-opening has also spooked investors.
Colonna will also discuss the Ukraine war with her Chinese counterparts and urge Beijing to use its influence on Iran to stop the Gaza crisis from escalating further, the French diplomatic source added. North Korea, which recently claimed it launched its first spy satellite, will be another key topic of discussion.
Macron visited China in April with great fanfare, in an attempt to demonstrate France’s strategic autonomy from the United States.
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