China lays red-carpet for Macron; Xi rolls out ‘pick & choose’ diplomacy
Photo credit Twitter Emmanuel Macron
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, April 8: French President Emmanuel Macron wrapped up his China visit with a large entourage of business executives. He exulted on the red-carpet rolled by China. Macron looked overjoyed with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Guangzou.
Xi bagged another piece of good optics, as he demonstrated that China can pick and choose almost at will with whom it wants to talk and charm. Macron handed over several concessions to China on a platter, including breaking ranks with the western peers to allow 5G technology carrier Huawei, besides military rapports in the South China Sea.
Macron, facing the popular heat back home, seemed eager to be an early bird to rest on the “opening of the Chinese economy” theme, which is being harped by China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang. China and France bilateral trade was in excess of $87 billion in 2022, marginally lower than the previous year.
France has followed in the footsteps of Germany to court China after Xi took the unprecedented third term as the ruler of the Communist country. China rolled out red-carpet to Macron also at a time when there are reports that the United States is seeking to break ice with China after the bilateral relations ebbed following the F16s destroying the alleged Chinese spy balloons over the American sky.
“Xi is aware that he can pick and choose his partners on the global stage. Xi’s visit to Moscow was intended not to promote Russia’s interests but to secure his own against the background of Russia’s international isolation from the West,” wrote former diplomat D B Venkatesh Kumar in an article for Vivekananda Foundation.
Xi’s rich display of warmth for Macron was seemingly a culmination of intense Chinese outreach to the European nations in the last few months to blunt the growing voices of “de-risking”. European countries are exceedingly dependent on China for its large market, as well as imports of critical resources for the energy transition efforts.
With China now drumming up market opening theme, Beijing is seeking greater investment from Europe to tide clear drifting apart with the US in its bilateral relations. The US investment may begin drying in China. Beijing will seek economic powerhouses of China to back its story.
“Every time Beijing wants to start wooing foreign investors and governments they make a speech about opening their markets. The pattern is always the same ‘it’s time for us to open markets’. This is followed by a wave of foreign investment, followed by lull period, then followed by subtle (and not so subtle) pressure to control, restrict, and take advantage of foreign investment. This started in 1997 and has repeated itself many times over,” wrote Nicholas Eftimiades, Professor at Penn State University.
While Macron sought to give cover to French economic interests in rushing to Beijing, China remained cold to the European desperation for Xi to work his ties with Vladimir Putin to end the Russia-Ukraine ware stalemate.
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