A trip with international dimensions. Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beijing on Wednesday April 5 for a state visit which should last three days and end on Friday in Canton, after an exchange with Chinese students and a new dinner with his counterpart Xi Jinping, whom he must already meet. THURSDAY. The French president’s goal is to reconnect with China, emphasizing the relaunch of human contacts to try to maintain dialogue on Ukraine and prevent the Asian giant from “switching to the camp of war” .

In slightly overcast weather, the French president was greeted when he got off the plane by Qin Gang, the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, before taking his place in a car escorted by a motorcade.

Shortly after getting off the plane, Emmanuel Macron gave a first speech to the French community to “state the challenges and objectives” of this trip. He also felt that Beijing could “play a major role” in “finding a path to peace” in Ukraine. “China has come up with a peace plan […] It is indeed a willingness to have a responsibility and to try to build a path to peace,” he also said.

Emmanuel Macron also said that Europe should not “separate” itself from China economically, but “engage proactively to continue to have a commercial relationship with China”. He will have an intense day of discussions Thursday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, to which the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will be partly associated.

While the French president intended to come to China regularly, his last trip dates back to 2019: the Covid-19 and the draconian sanitary restrictions which were only lifted at the end of 2022 by the Chinese authorities froze relations for a long time – and experienced the French residing in China.

Paris is therefore betting on “reconnection” at all levels and wants to relaunch human exchanges, especially those between students from the two countries.

For this trip, Emmanuel Macron surrounded himself with nearly 80 French personalities, from the economic and cultural world, ranging from big bosses – more than 50 business leaders, including the leaders of Airbus, EDF, Alstom and Veolia, are present – ??to artists like director Jean-Jacques Annaud, musician Jean-Michel Jarre and actress Gong Li and painter Yan Pei-Ming.