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Chinese President Xi Jinping left Beijing today on his first European tour since 2019 with stops for state visits planned in France, Serbia and Hungary at the invitation of Presidents Emmanuel Macron, Aleksandar Vucic and Tamas Sulyok, respectively, as well as the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
This is what is reported by the state agency of the diplomacy of the Communist Party.
First stop in France
The first stop is in Paris with Macron for the 60 years of bilateral diplomatic relations, to reciprocate the visit that the head of Elysium made last spring to Beijing and Canton. The visit takes place when Beijing is pushing to prevent the opening of a trade front with the EU after the one with the USA, while Brussels’ attitude towards China is hardening due to cases of espionage, accusations of a disinformation campaign , the strengthening of bilateral relations and the communist leadership’s support for Russia in the war on Ukraine, and the Taiwan dossier.
The precedent of 2019
Xi’s last visit to Europe dates back to March 2019. He came to Italy for the signing of the Silk Road agreements, now archived. CNN today dusts off a photo of Xi with the head of state Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale. On that occasion, Maestro Andrea Bocelli also performed in front of Xi. But, five years have passed, a lot has changed in Europe.
«In many European capitals, China is increasingly seen as a complex threat. But there are divisions within Europe on how quickly and to what extent to address concerns about China, both in the economic and security fields”, summarizes Noah Barkin of the German Marshall Fund of the United States quoted by CNN.