"If China takes this disastrous decision, there is a major strategic effect on the conflict," an adviser to the French head of state warned.
"We want to avoid the worst and that's why we have to engage them, to present them with our position," he added in front of some journalists.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna had already said Thursday that the president would warn Chinese leaders "that it is essential to refrain" from supporting the Russian war effort.
In the immediate future, Emmanuel Macron wants to try to "find a space" with Beijing for "initiatives" to "support the civilian population" Ukrainian, but also "identify a medium-term path for a solution to the conflict," said the French presidency presenting the objectives of this state visit.
According to Paris, this dialogue is all the more crucial as "China is the only country in the world able to have an immediate and radical impact on the conflict, one way or the other".
The France had recently hoped to convince the Chinese president to exert his "influence" on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to push him towards a negotiated solution to the conflict. Or even that it plays "a mediation role".
But Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow ten days ago, during which the two leaders praised their "special" relationship and sharply attacked the West, seems to have pushed the French authorities to scale back their ambitions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on March 21, 2023 in the Kremlin, in Moscow © Mikhail TERESHCHENKO / SPUTNIK / AFP
"We are very lucid," assured the French presidency, noting in particular that China does not intend to condemn Russia.
Emmanuel Macron travels from Wednesday to Friday in China to set to music this "re-engagement process" after a long period without personal contacts due to Covid-19, broken by a meeting with Xi Jinping in November on the sidelines of a summit in Indonesia.
He is expected Wednesday afternoon in the Chinese capital, where he will meet a French community tested by long restrictions related to the pandemic, lifted only at the end of 2022.
"Another way"
On Thursday, before a state dinner, he will meet with Chinese leaders, with a scheduled tete-a-tete with President Xi and a joint sequence also with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who will be at the Elysee Palace on Monday to prepare the joint visit with Emmanuel Macron.
Finally, the head of state will travel Friday to Guangzhou, where he will exchange with Chinese students and end his visit with a "privileged moment" for dinner with Xi Jinping, "in a place chosen" by the latter, according to the Elysee.
Tiananmen Square in Beijing, March 4, 2023 © NOEL CELIS / AFP/Archives
Paris considers Beijing "unavoidable" on many global challenges, first and foremost the fight against global warming.
Emmanuel Macron will be accompanied by some sixty French business leaders, including those of Airbus, EDF, Alstom and Veolia, with a focus on the energy transition. Contract signatures are expected, the French executive said without detailing them.
The president intends to continue pushing for "better access to the Chinese market" and "a level playing field", as during his two previous visits to China in 2018 and 2019, said his entourage.
Emmanuel Macron, who according to his entourage will raise the issue of human rights with Xi Jinping, finally wants to renew human contacts, especially in the cultural field and exchanges between students from the two countries.
While the competition between China and the United States, the world's two leading powers, is likely to turn confrontational, the France assumes to carry "another way" in the relationship with the Asian giant.
"We are an ally of the Americans. There is no equidistance between China and the United States," the French presidential adviser said. But "we do not have the same positions as the United States vis-à-vis China, because we do not have the same interests", "we do not have the same geography" or "the same alliances as the Americans in the Pacific".
© 2023 AFP