French President Emmanuel Macron will make his fourth state visit to China this week, as Europe seeks to balance economic and security threats from Beijing with its dependence on the world's second-largest economy during a period of global trade turmoil, Reuters reports, writes UNN.
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In the past, Macron has sought to project a strong European front in relations with China, while trying not to provoke hostility from Beijing, whose growing assertiveness is testing trade, military, and diplomatic ties, analysts note.
"He needs to make it clear to China's leadership that Europe will respond to growing economic and security threats from Beijing, while preventing an escalation of tensions that could lead to a full-blown trade war and diplomatic failure," Noah Barkin, a China analyst with Rhodium Group, told Reuters.
"That's not an easy message to deliver," he said.
Macron, who will begin his trip with a visit to Beijing's Forbidden City on Wednesday, will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday in the capital, and then again on Friday during a trip to Chengdu, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
His visit follows a tense trip by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in July, when she stated that EU-China ties were at a "turning point."
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will visit China early next year.
Trade tensions between China and Europe have risen, as cheap Chinese exports, particularly in the steel sector after being excluded from the US market, are hitting much of European industry.
There are also concerns in Europe about China's growing technological advantage in the electric vehicle (EV) sector and its dominance in rare earth processing, which could threaten supplies for critical European industries.
As Washington's tariffs squeeze global trade, Beijing is seizing the opportunity to present itself as a partner for business, hoping to assuage European concerns about China's support for Russia and its state-subsidized industrial model.
Ahead of the visit, Macron's advisers said he would push for a rebalancing of trade dynamics to encourage China to increase domestic consumption, and hoped that "the benefits of innovation could be shared" to allow Europe access to Chinese technology.
To combat growing concerns about trade with China, the EU is expected to unveil a new economic security doctrine that could allow the bloc to use its trade toolkit more aggressively against China.
France, whose car manufacturers have negligible sales in China but are under pressure to successfully transition to electric vehicles at home, has supported the European Commission's push to raise tariffs on imported Chinese electric vehicles, the publication writes.
It has also been embroiled in a dispute with Beijing that lasted over a year over a Chinese investigation into brandy imports, a move widely seen as China's retaliation for France's support for EV tariffs, before being offered a reprieve.
Despite the recent opening of a new assembly line in China, Airbus is unlikely to receive a long-awaited order for up to 500 aircraft during Macron's visit, industry sources said. Such deals give Beijing leverage over Washington, which is pushing for new Boeing purchase commitments.
Macron will also seek to avoid repeating the mistakes of his last trip in 2023, when his remarks on Taiwan in an interview on the flight home sparked a backlash in the United States.
"Macron cannot afford to be as reckless as he was in 2023," Barkin said, adding that his comments, in which he appeared to refuse to take sides with China or the US, "painted a false picture of what France's China policy actually was."
French advisers said Macron would push for the preservation of the status quo in Taiwan and urge China not to escalate the situation after recent statements by Japan about the island, which provoked a diplomatic spat with Beijing.
"I expect him to be more disciplined this time," Barkin said. "There's a lot more at stake for France and Europe."