French President Emmanuel Macron will visit China this week for his fourth state trip, as Europe tries to navigate its economic dependence on the world’s second-largest economy while addressing rising security and strategic concerns amid global trade turbulence.
Macron will begin his trip on Wednesday with a visit to Beijing’s Forbidden City, before meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in the capital on Thursday and again on Friday during a visit to Chengdu, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
His trip follows a tense visit by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in July, during which she said that relations between the EU and China had reached an “inflection point.
Macron has previously aimed to project a strong, unified European stance toward Beijing, while at the same time avoiding moves that might provoke China, whose increasing assertiveness is placing new pressure on trade, security, and diplomatic relations, according to analysts.
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