Only small deals for France in Beijing, but a more united EU front could be coming

French President Emmanuel Macron wrapped up a three-day visit to China with moderate outcomes, including a few business deals, as the South China Morning Post notes:

• “A deal between French engineering firm Fives and Chinese online retail giant JD.com to set up a logistics center in France to source French food and luxury products for sale online in China.”
• “JD.com also agreed to sell €2 billion [$2.39 billion] worth of French products in the next two years, including high-end wine and cognac.”
• The “lifting of a Chinese embargo on French beef,” according to Reuters.

But larger deals were left in unfinished form:

• “Nuclear group Areva failed to finalize a decade of negotiations with a contract to build a fuel reprocessing plant, securing only another protocol agreement” (per Reuters).
• “On the order for 184 A320s, it’s something that will be finalized shortly,” Macron said of a potential sale for aeronautics giant Airbus, Channel NewsAsia reports.
• “Airbus signed a provisional deal on Tuesday to boost the number of A320 family jets assembled in Tianjin to six a month by 2020 from four at present” (per Channel NewsAsia).

Reuters says that the larger significance of the visit may be Macron’s calls for European unity in dealmaking with China. “Europe has often shown itself divided about China…and China won’t respect a continent, a power, when some member states let their doors freely open,” the French president said.

• The EU ambassador to China seems to agree. Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, while calling for progress in bilateral investment treaty talks between the EU and China, emphasized, “There has never been any doubt that, obviously, completeness and the responsibilities of the EU have to be fully respected,” SCMP reports.
• This comes amid increasing anxiety among EU leaders over China’s influence in Central and Eastern Europe.

• Guo Wengui
  The mystery of the exiled billionaire whistle-blower / NYT (paywall)
  “From a penthouse on Central Park, Guo Wengui has exposed a phenomenal web of corruption in China’s ruling elite — if, that is, he’s telling the truth.” For more on Guo, listen to our Sinica Podcast with New York Times journalists Mike Forsythe and Alexandra Stevenson.  
• Language activist Tashi Wangchuk
  How China used a Times documentary as evidence against its subject / NYT (paywall)
  Filmmaker Jonah Kessel writes: “In 2015, after I met Mr. Tashi, I made a nine-minute film for The Times about his efforts to raise the issue of Tibetan education to the central government and Chinese state media. Last week, that documentary was shown in court as the main evidence that Mr. Tashi was inciting separatism.”
• Hong Kong ivory trade
  NGO decries ‘lenient’ HK$8k fine for Hong Kong ivory trader who sits on gov’t endangered species committee / HKFP
  WildAid Hong Kong on Twitter: “We are receiving the great news that convicted wildlife criminal Lau Sai-yuan has RESIGNED from the Hong Kong government’s AFCD Endangered Species Advisory Committee! This is great news for elephants!”
• Huawei’s troubles in America
  Huawei’s CEO going off-script to rage at US carriers was the best speech of CES / The Verge
• Virtual reality, Facebook, and Xiaomi
  Oculus is coming to China—land of dirt-cheap VR headsets—thanks to Xiaomi / Quartz
• Oil tanker fire
  Four days on, the Sanchi oil tanker is still on fire the East China Sea / Washington Post
• North Korea talks
  China, Japan criticize Canada’s bid to play North Korea mediator / Bloomberg
• Air pollution
  China says 28 northern cities met late 2017 anti-smog targets / Reuters