In order to welcome the arrival of the Chinese leader, the French side has really made great efforts. When the Chinese plane arrived, French Prime Minister Attar led a group of senior French officials to wait at the airport early. From the live video, we can see that the red carpet is spread from the place where the special plane arrives to the end of the honor guard standing, and other places are also full of red carpets.
In addition, in the most important welcome link, it is also full of details. The moment the Chinese leader stepped down the gangway, the guard of honor began to play music, and the rhythm was uniform. After meeting the Chinese leader, French Prime Minister Atal specially greeted him in Chinese and took the initiative to talk about the Chinese he had studied for a year, so as to narrow the distance between the two sides, and once again reflected France's respect for the Chinese leader.
In anticipation of the day, the mayor of Paris cleaned the main streets a few days in advance to ensure that the Chinese leaders were clean and tidy. Not only that, but the bright Chinese flag is everywhere on the street lamps on the streets of Paris, on important buildings, and even at the entrance of parks, making Chinese leaders feel at home.
[Chinese plane arrives in France]
It is reported that after entertaining the Chinese side at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Macron will also invite the Chinese leader and his wife to visit the Pyrenees, which is the birthplace of Macron's grandmother and is also known as Macron's "second hometown". When the French media reported on it, they called the arrangement "close diplomacy", believing that France was deliberately drawing closer to China and opening up the situation for the next negotiations.
It is also worth mentioning that before the arrival of the Chinese leaders, Macron met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and EU President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the meeting with the Chinese side, and urged the leaders of China, France and Europe to hold a trilateral meeting. The intensity of the French side's preparations for this series of preparations is enough to prove the importance of this visit in the eyes of France.
And the reason why France is the embodiment of China as a "detail maniac" is naturally to ask for something.
From foreign media reports, we can know that this time France will focus on two aspects of talks with China, one is economic issues, and the other is the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
[The Chinese flag flutters at the entrance of the Elysee Palace]
As we all know, since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, almost all of Europe has fallen into an energy crisis. However, the United States has introduced a series of subsidy policies to attract European energy-intensive industries to build factories in the United States by virtue of its own energy advantages. But for a long time, we thought that Germany was the first to be affected, and in fact France was not having an easy time.
Just a few days before the arrival of the Chinese leader in France, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made a prediction that France's slow economic development would cause France to fall out of the world's top 10 economies within five years, and even be overtaken by Turkey. But rather than worrying about his country's economic development, Macron is more worried about whether the whole of Europe will be dragged down by the United States.
A few days ago, Macron gave a speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris, warning of the risk of Europe being "left behind" and "downgraded" in the next decade, arguing that if Europe is too immersed in the international rules of the past, it will not be able to cope with the challenges of the future, and even predicts that Europe may "die". In the past, the formulators of international rules were nothing more than the United States.
[Macron does not want to be a vassal of the United States]
So, France's current situation is actually very contradictory. On the one hand, Macron shouted the slogan of getting rid of the vassalage of the United States early on, wanted to recreate the glory of the De Gaulle administration, and criticized the North for being in a state of "brain death". At the heart of Gaullism, however, is independence. But on the other hand, France's current strength is simply not enough to support Macron's great power ambitions.
In the past, France used the "Russian card" to play with the United States. However, since the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, France and Russia are incompatible, and it is all the more necessary to use China's power to balance the pressure and ambitions of the United States. In other words, as long as France wants to break free from the United States, maintaining a strong relationship with China will be the only option.
And judging from the data, the economic cooperation between China and France is indeed remarkable. In the first three quarters of last year, France led the way in investment in China, growing by more than 121%. At the same time, France is China's third partner in the EU, with trade between China and France reaching $78.9 billion last year. For Airbus, China is also one of the world's largest buyers.
Therefore, judging from France's preparations this time, the economic cooperation it wants to achieve with China is only more, not less.
[French police patrol the streets of Paris]
In addition, Macron will also discuss the conflict between Russia and Ukraine with Chinese leaders, but Macron is more concerned about the upcoming Olympics in Paris than a truce.
Some time ago, Macron made astonishing statements that troops should be sent directly to Ukraine. But this suggestion has not been echoed by other countries, with the United States, Britain and Germany all making it clear that they have no plans to send troops to Ukraine.
But the remarks immediately angered Russia, and given Russia's consistent style, Macron now can't help but worry that Russia will take the opportunity to retaliate during the Olympics. According to international practice, there should be a temporary ceasefire during the Olympic Games, but with the current relationship between Russia and France, France is unable to exert influence on Russia, and an intermediary is needed at this time, and for France, only the Chinese side can help with this favor.
Looking at it this way, it makes sense that France attaches great importance to the Chinese leader. In short, although there are sometimes some trade frictions between China and France, such as France's support for the EU's countervailing investigation into Chinese electric vehicles. But on the whole, the two sides still cooperate more than compete. For China, it is equally important to properly handle relations with France, and it can be said that if Sino-French relations are consolidated, things in Europe will be settled in half, and the needs of both sides will increase each other, which is also the common interest of the two countries.