As Chinese President Xi Jinping embarks on his first European tour in five years, concerns over China’s support for Russia’s wartime economy amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine are expected to be a key focus.
Xi’s visit to France Serbia and Hungary comes at a time when the European Union is grappling with internal divisions over trade relations with Beijing and the bloc’s positioning between the United States and China.
A Macron aide said the French leader would add his voice to calls from Washington Brussels Berlin and elsewhere for China to stop exports to Russia of “dual-use” and other technologies propping up Russia’s war effort.
Xi’s choice of Serbia and Hungary, both pro-Russia and large recipients of Chinese investment, is seen as an attempt to deepen divisions within the EU.
🚨Update: Xi in Europe!! Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday attended a China-France-EU trilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Paris! pic.twitter.com/3AP4IQwu4E
— US Civil Defense News (@CaptCoronado) May 6, 2024
Chinese analysts suggest that Xi could use his stopover in Belgrade, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of NATO’s bombing of the Chinese embassy there, to play up China’s anti-NATO agenda.
China has amplified Russian efforts to blame the U.S. and NATO for escalating the Ukraine war by supplying arms to Kyiv.
“Xi’s goal would be neutralising the EU’s economic security agenda, including its tariff threats, by exploiting internal differences,” said Mathieu Duchatel, senior fellow at the Institut Montaigne.
Tibetans protest China’s Xi Jinping’s arrival to France.
This is his first visit to Europe in five years pic.twitter.com/zJPfQ1YC4b
— Karthik Reddy (@bykarthikreddy) May 5, 2024
