© Reuters. French Overseas Minister Catherine Colonna and Chinese language Overseas Minister Wang Yi attend the sixth China-France high-level dialogue on people-to-people alternate at Peking College in Beijing, China November 24, 2023. Jade Gao/Pool by way of REUTERS
2/5
By Laurie Chen and John Irish
BEIJING/PARIS (Reuters) -France is dedicated to dialogue with China, French Overseas Minister Catherine Colonna stated on Friday, affirming ties after a European Union anti-subsidy probe backed by Paris into Chinese language-made electrical autos rankled Beijing.
Colonna’s go to to the Chinese language capital, centred round encouraging exchanges between residents of each international locations corresponding to college students and vacationers, has threatened to be overshadowed by commerce points within the wake of the EV investigation, which Beijing has blasted as “protectionist”.
“We are really committed to dialogue with China,” Colonna informed China’s Premier Li Qiang, including that she was “honoured” and “happy” to see him after their Paris assembly in June.
In a put up on X, previously generally known as Twitter, Colonna repeated that she was “honoured” to have been acquired by Li.
“With China, we are working to find answers to global climate, biodiversity and debt challenges, and to deepen and rebalance our economic relationship,” she wrote.
Colonna’s journey precedes a go to by the European Fee and Council presidents, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, to Beijing in early December for the primary in-person summit with President Xi Jinping in 4 years, after China-EU relations nosedived through the pandemic.
European officers have repeatedly vowed to cut back financial dependencies on China in important sectors – in any other case generally known as “de-risking” – within the face of what the G7 calls China’s “economic coercion”.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with Xi in China earlier this 12 months, has argued the EU ought to cease being naive and demand a degree taking part in discipline with international locations like China, and had been pushing the European Fee behind the scenes to launch the probe.
China is France’s third-largest commerce companion, however French and different European companies are deeply involved about China’s huge commerce imbalance with the EU, its opaque laws on cross-border information transfers and low-cost Chinese language EVs flooding the European market, threatening home carmakers.
France can be involved about Chinese language makes an attempt to power French cosmetics firms to share manufacturing secrets and techniques with Chinese language events.
France is China’s prime supply of cosmetics and wine imports, in line with China’s customs company, with French luxurious titans corresponding to LMVH significantly depending on Chinese language customers. The dearth of a robust rebound in luxurious demand following China’s post-pandemic re-opening has spooked buyers.
Xi insisted that China welcomes funding from French companies in a phone name on Monday with Macron, who urged honest remedy for international firms in China.
The Chinese language premier, in his assembly with Colonna, took an upbeat stance on broader bilateral ties.
“Under the strategic leadership of President Xi Jinping and President Macron, the relationship between China and France has been developing better and better in all aspects since this year,” Li stated.
“Next year will be the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, and both of us are sustaining our efforts in the hope that the 60th year would see a big development and a big breakthrough.”
