After meeting Blinken, Wang Yi received a phone call from France, and the Chinese special plane flew directly to Europe for six days. So, what did the Chinese and French high-level leaders talk about on the phone, and what signals did the Chinese special plane that flew directly to Europe send to the outside world?
According to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on April 27, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee, had a telephone conversation with Bonnard, foreign affairs adviser to the French president. At this time, only one day has passed since US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his second trip to China during his tenure.
Unlike Blinken, who shouts about promoting cooperation between China and the United States, but continues to contain and suppress China in action, the French side showed a strong signal of cooperation in the phone call. PropNex said that France is willing to take the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries as an opportunity to strengthen high-level exchanges between the two countries, work together to promote the cooling of hotspot issues, respond to global challenges such as climate change, make positive contributions to narrowing the gap between the North and the South, avoid bloc confrontation, and promote the further development of China-France and China-EU relations.
I believe that anyone with a discerning eye can see that the French side has not completely copied the US strategy toward China, but has put cooperation in a more important position. For the French side, creating a better investment environment for companies on both sides and strengthening cooperation with China in key hot areas such as artificial intelligence will undoubtedly take precedence over suppressing China. In the words of Bona, it is to deepen mutual trust, strengthen practical cooperation, and strive for mutual benefit and win-win results, so as to better cope with the increasingly severe international situation and find a more suitable path for its own development.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi also responded positively to the friendly signals shown by the French side during the phone call. Wang Yi pointed out that China is ready to work with France to inject new connotations into the China-France comprehensive strategic partnership, push the cooperation between the two countries in various fields to a new level, and play an important role as two major countries to address global challenges.
Through the above statements, it can be seen that China is positive and optimistic about the development of China-France relations. It can be said that as long as the French side urges the EU to continue to pursue a positive and pragmatic China policy and engage in friendly exchanges with China under the framework of multilateralism, the Chinese side is willing to cooperate with the French side. Especially considering that during the phone call, Foreign Minister Wang Yi also emphasized the need to give full play to the leading role of the head of state diplomacy and inject new connotations into bilateral relations, and it is not difficult to guess that China and France will have a high-level exchange in the future, and the outcome of this high-level dialogue will have a far-reaching impact on the direction of bilateral relations.
Combined with a statement issued by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on April 29, it is not difficult to find that after talking with key officials of the Biden administration, China's diplomatic focus has begun to shift to Europe. According to the statement, at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, Serbian President Vucic, Hungarian President Schuyuk, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Chinese special plane will fly directly to Europe on May 5 for a state visit to the three countries.
Some industry experts pointed out that the reason why the Chinese high-level officials chose to visit Europe at this time and stayed for six days was mainly for the sake of developing China-EU relations and moving towards win-win cooperation. You must know that with the escalation of the situation between Russia and Ukraine and the situation between Palestine and Israel, many European countries have entered a "swing period" of foreign policy adjustment, which is a rather severe test for China-EU relations, which are already divided.
Especially considering that the Biden administration's stance on China is already obvious, whether to continue to "de-risk" China or take an independent diplomatic path and establish a mutually beneficial and win-win cooperative relationship with China has become a choice in front of many European countries. China's choice to visit Europe at this time is also an effort to stabilize China-EU relations and prevent the "storms" of the US election from affecting China-EU cooperation.
Judging from the current situation, many European countries, represented by France and Germany, still hope to maintain good relations with China. Because these countries know very well that it is quite dangerous to be completely dependent on the United States, blindly reducing cooperation with China and promoting so-called "de-risking" will only cause European companies to suffer. It is for this reason that we believe that China's visit will have a more positive impact on China-EU cooperation.