Big bosses, artists, zoo director… It is accompanied by nearly 80 French personalities that Emmanuel Macron has decided to make the trip to China from this Wednesday, April 5. This three-day trip aims to reconnect with China, emphasizing the relaunch of human contacts in an attempt to maintain dialogue on Ukraine and prevent the Asian giant from “swinging over to the camp of the war “.

The French head of state, who is due to spend the day with President Xi Jinping on Thursday, will begin by emphasizing cultural ties on Wednesday by inaugurating the Franco-Chinese festival “Croisements”, billed as the largest foreign festival in China. To do this, he will be accompanied in particular by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Four years after the cathedral fire and a few days before the release in China of his film Notre-Dame is burning, the director is indeed part of the presidential delegation.

Jean-Michel Jarre and Gong Li will also be on the trip. A pioneer of electronic music, Jean-Michel Jarre is accustomed to traveling to China. In 1981, he was the first Western artist to perform in the People’s Republic since the death of regime founder Mao Tse-tung (1949-1976). The country was then just beginning to open up to the world.

In 2004, Jean-Michel Jarre had the privilege of giving a concert inside the prestigious Forbidden City, during the opening of the year of France in China. The 74-year-old artist is in a relationship with Gong Li, considered one of China’s greatest actresses. She is also part of the delegation.

The Beauval ZooParc will also be honoured. The only site in France where you can admire pandas, the ZooParc de Beauval (center) saw the family grow in 2021 with the extremely rare birth of two twin girls. Brigitte Macron, the French president’s wife, is the godmother of one of the zoo’s bears, Yuan Meng (“fulfillment of a dream”), born in 2017. These animals, on loan from China, are considered treasures national and delight visitors.

This presidential trip will also have an economic dimension. Economic relations and access to the Chinese market will be an important part of discussions between Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping. The economic delegation includes around fifty representatives of large companies, including Danone, EDF, L’Oréal, Veolia, Airbus, Club Med, Safran, Orano and BNP Paribas.