- Tweeter
republish
Chinese President Xi Jinping begins this Monday the official part of his visit to France, where Emmanuel Macron will try to persuade him to play according to the rules of multilateralism badly in point.
Xi Jinping is in Paris for a three-day visit to France , which began this Sunday in Nice with a tête-à-tête of Chinese and French presidents, and concludes a mini-European tour in Italy and Monaco. Italy signed on Saturday a Memorandum of Understanding on its participation in the new Silk Roads , the gigantic system of rail and sea links designed to promote trade and cooperation between Asian and European countries. What worries Paris and part of the European capitals, for which these roads are a little too Chinese.
Emmanuel Macron at the maneuver
Since the beginning of his mandate, the French president has been a critical voice on the Chinese initiative "one belt, one road", the new silk roads brought by Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. Last January, during a speech in Xi'an , in central China, Emmanuel Macron stressed that these roads must work in both directions. He repeated it ten days ago during his tour of West Africa, recalling that " the silk roads are roads opened by Marco Polo, and they worked in both directions ", stating: " I believe in the spirit of balance ". A speech made on a continent where China - like France - is very present.
What worries European politicians and specialists is that the new silk roads would work at nearly 90% with Chinese products - financial products, infrastructures, standards ... " This is absolutely not the win-win project, the reciprocal project that we sell the Chinese , says Sophie Boisseau du Rocher, author of the book China e (s) t the world . The important thing now is to bring Xi Jinping and his team to review their copy so that Europe does not feel aggrieved by the implementation of the Silk Roads, and instead contributes fully. And that indeed, we manage to correct this asymmetry ".
For Sophie Boisseau du Rocher, the main goal of Beijing with its silk routes is to create maritime and rail connections to trade more easily with Europe, at a time when Chinese growth is slowing down. But to become the world's leading power, China must be able to impose its technologies, innovations and standards on the rest of the world, " as the United States did at some point ." It is therefore perhaps and above all for Beijing to benefit from cutting-edge European technologies and technological innovations " to not only capture technology but also succeed in creating the technology that will be imposed on us later, " says specialist.
But there is still time for France as Europe to change the situation, with China more motivated than before to discuss, while it is in full negotiations with the United States of Donald Trump. " Beijing suffers more than it is willing to recognize in the face of the trade war that is being waged by the US president ," says Valérie Niquet of the Foundation for Strategic Research. And with this growth that continues to slow down, Beijing needs " Europe and especially France, which plays an important role since Brexit in the impulses it can give especially at the level of the European Union ".
Difficult European negotiations
But France is suspicious. In recent days, Emmanuel Macron calls for a common European position vis-à-vis China. Last week, he initiated several discussions at European level, stressing that " the time of European naivete " in relations with China is over. And he invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Council President Donald Tusk to meet Xi Jinping in Paris on Tuesday.
However, the standoff between China and the Americans can also turn against Europe. " There has already been a law in China to ensure that foreign investments are facilitated, so I think that the agreement on investments is still likely to progress, " concedes Emmanuel Dubois de Prisque, the magazine Monde Chinese New Asia . But according to him, on international trade, the Chinese are preparing to release much of the US side, so it will be difficult to make concessions on the European side.
" The Chinese today are tempted to favor the Americans, because that's what Trump is asking," he says, "because China's dependence on American technology is very important today. We saw what happened recently for the telecommunications company ZTE, which almost disappeared by the simple fact of US sanctions . The Chinese are much more worried about what can happen on the American side than on the European side, and therefore more willing to compromise on one side than the other. Hence perhaps the importance for Emmanuel Macron of this united front that he intends to present to Xi Jinping tomorrow, with the German Chancellor and the President of the European Council.
► To (re) read: After Monaco, Xi Jinping in France for three days