France's President Emmanuel Macron concluded his first state visit to China on Wednesday 10 January by advocating greater cohesion between the countries of the EU in order for Europe to be respected by Beijing in its economic relations with China.
"The EU should adopt a common approach to protect its strategic assets against foreign takeovers, if it wants to be respected by China", Macron said during a meeting with the French community at the Embassy of France in Beijing.
"Europe has often ended up divided in the face of China. And China cannot respect a continent where some of the member states give themselves over in some way with doors wide open, where it is easy to buy key infrastructure by auction. So, when France or Europe defends its strategic sectors, it good for us and for dialogue", he said.
Along with Germany and Italy, France is pushing for the control of investment from third countries (especially from China) in strategic sectors in Europe. Internal discussions in the EU have only just begun on the draft common framework for filtering foreign direct investment (FDI) from third countries in the EU – which was tabled by the Commission on 14 September (see EUROPE 11862).
But the idea is challenged by the EU countries that depend on Chinese investment, including countries in the east of Europe that are more willing to accept Chinese capital, even in strategic sectors, or including countries like Greece, which sold its port of Piraeus to Chinese investors. "Some countries are much more open to Chinese interests, sometimes at the expense of a European interest. We cannot be angry with them because we have driven them to very hard privatisations", Macron recognised.
But he also asked the EU to set out a common position in the face of the huge new Silk Road project supported by China's President Xi Jinping. "We cannot ignore this initiative. That would be to decide to submit to it and would be a deep strategic error", he said, admitting that this project divides Europe, where some countries are very concerned about an expansionist China.
During his visit to China, Macron combined flattery with warnings in order to try to obtain a re-balancing of trade relations between China and Europe (where France has a clear deficit), insisting on the need for "balanced collaboration" between the two partners.
At a summit with Xi on Tuesday, Macron hailed China's commitment to multilateralism and its desire to engage at global level against climate change and terrorism, but he warned that market opening must be reciprocal and justified France's pressure for filtering Chinese investment in the EU's strategic sectors.
"I would like the new silk roads to enable this balanced cooperation", he said at a press conference with Xi, where he also called on the EU "to have a more coordinated approach in order to give more visibility to China", and where he gave assurances that he wanted "to facilitate Chinese investment in Europe in pre-defined sectors".
Macron also announced on Wednesday that the Chinese embargo that has hit French beef since 2001 and mad cow disease would be lifted within six months.
In addition, Macron took responsibility for not bringing up human rights publicly. "I can enjoy giving lessons to China by speaking to the French press. That has been done a lot and has produced no result", he said. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)