“Macron’s State Visit to China: Beyond Diplomatic Gesture”

Emmanuel Macron climbed the steps of the Palace of the People’s Assembly in Tian’anmen Square, followed by a procession of business leaders and artists. Nothing was lacking in the splendor of a state visit, and the French president brought his counterpart gifts: snapshots of China in the mid-twentieth^e century, of the French photographer [Marc Riboud]as well as a Sèvres porcelain vase decorated with golden fish, chosen to illustrate the ancient links between the decorative arts of the two cultures.

Faced with plummeting popularity at home and an unwavering mobilization against his pension reform, Macron went to China to try to restore his image, once again, through foreign policy.

However, this episode goes well beyond the usual diplomatic bets that the French president likes to make. In the purest tradition ofOld regime*, he was going to Xi’s court in the hope of getting something there. And no doubt he has found someone to talk to in the person of the Chinese president, who on the geopolitical level is himself playing even bigger stakes. Since China emerged from its interminable Covid-19 lockdown, Xi Jinping has been eyeing a long list of world leaders. Unlike Vladimir Putin, in the Kremlin, who last year inflicted a snub on Macron, who came to negotiate peace in Ukraine, Xi knows how to play it smart. But if Macron did not arra