Macron Visits China in Attempt to Find Breakthrough in Ukraine War

By Staff, Agencies

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are set to arrive in China on Wednesday for a three-day state visit that will see them meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Macron will be accompanied by a delegation of more than 50 CEOs and meet with the French business community, but all eyes will be on how he and von der Leyen discuss the war in Ukraine with the Chinese leadership.

China is officially neutral on the war but has propped up Russia economically and diplomatically in the face of Western sanctions. Xi also has the ear of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he shares a close friendship spanning more than a decade. In March, the duo signed a Sino-Russian strategic partnership during Xi’s state visit to Moscow.

At the G20 summit in November, Macron called for China to play a “greater mediation role” in the war but Beijing has yet to advance its role beyond issuing a 12-point peace plan that has received a lukewarm response in Kiev and Western capitals.

Macron’s trip is his first to China since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in early 2020, when Beijing effectively shut its borders to travel. The French leader last visited the country in 2019.

His trip follows one made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in November but it has already taken a different tone.

Scholz’s trip was widely criticized in Europe as too conciliatory towards Beijing, with the German leader’s efforts to shore up the country’s business interests taking precedence over pushing China to join the negotiating table over Ukraine.

This time, however, Xi can expect pushback.

Macron and US counterpart Joe Biden agreed in a telephone call ahead of the former’s trip to engage China to hasten the end of the war in Ukraine, the Elysée Palace said on Wednesday.