Xi offers no help on Ukraine after meeting with Macron and von der Leyen

Politics & Current Affairs

As expected, not much came out of the highly-anticipated meeting between the leaders of China, France, and the EU in Beijing today. But France did walk away with some lucrative business deals.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron arrive in Beijing, on April 6, 2023. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS.

Xรญ Jรฌnpรญng ไน ่ฟ‘ๅนณ offered no new updates on Chinaโ€™s position on the Ukraine war, following a closely-watched meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron, who is on a three-day state visit to Beijing along with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi to โ€œbring Russia to its senses, and bring everyone back to the negotiating table” amid concerns over Beijingโ€™s deepening relationship with Moscow.

After an hour and a half of โ€frankโ€ and โ€œfriendlyโ€ talks with Macron, Xi called for Ukraine and Russia to resume peace negotiations. Xi also noted that “nuclear weapons must not be used” โ€” though he did not explicitly mention Russia. Russia said earlier last week it planned to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, near its allyโ€™s borders with NATO countries.

Macron was accompanied by a delegation of about 50 business leaders in hopes of inking a series of deals with China, underscoring the deep economic linkages between their two nations.

Europe unlikely to convince China to step up pressure on Russia

The joint visit by EU leaders comes amid growing concerns in the West about Beijingโ€™s embrace of Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine. While China has largely abided by Western sanctions on Russia, it has also provided an economic lifeline to its isolated northern neighbor by lapping up cheap Russian oil and gas, and supplying significant amounts of technology, such as a $74 million increase in chips in 2022 compared to the year prior.

โ€œWhilst von der Leyen hopes that China [will] play a greater role and take a bigger responsibility in this crisis, one should also be aware that China is unlikely to proactively intervene into this conflict or to openly condemn Russia as this would go against Chinaโ€™s own norms and principles in foreign policy,โ€ Xuechen Chen, assistant professor in Politics and International Relations at Northeastern University London, told The China Project today.

China has repeatedly emphasized its neutral stance in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and has attempted to position itself as a mediator between Moscow and Kyiv. But Beijing has refrained from condemning Moscowโ€™s invasion to date: Chinese state media has largely parroted back Kremlin narratives on the conflict, and Xi met with Putin last month in a sign of growing economic and diplomatic ties with Russia.

While China released its own 12-point peace plan to the conflict on the one-year anniversary of Russiaโ€™s invasion of Ukraine, Western nations have criticized the plan as being too conciliatory towards Moscow. U.S. and EU leaders have also become increasingly wary over the prospect that China might provide military equipment, directly or indirectly, to Russia โ€” a concern which Beijing says in unwarranted.

The two sides to Europeโ€™s dealings with China

Macron and von der Leyenโ€™s joint state visit marks the latest push from European leaders to engage with China. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sรกnchez have both met with Xi on separate visits to Beijing in recent months.

The EU has emphasized its need to form an โ€œindependent foreign policyโ€ and to unify its stance when dealing with China. European countries have been criticized both by Beijing and by their own constituents for blindly following the U.S. in its hardened posture towards China.

โ€œFor both France and the EU, we can see that economic cooperation and engagement remains at the top of the agendaโ€ฆemphasizing that they intend to de-risk rather than de-couple from China,โ€ Chen told The China Project. โ€œThis implies that while the EU hopes to strengthen its strategic autonomy and to become less dependent on external actors in terms of critical resources, the EU still acknowledge[s] the importance to work with China on various issues, such as economic and trade, as well as in climate change.โ€

While Macron was flanked by a 50-strong delegation to woo Chinese business leaders, von der Leyen, who has been called the โ€œbad cop in Brussels,โ€ gave sharp comments in a speech last week that China is becoming โ€œmore repressive at home and more assertive abroad,โ€ drawing backlash from Beijing.

Although she pointed out that the EU did not want to โ€œcut economic, societal, political or scientific ties,โ€ she did stress the need to โ€œrebalanceโ€ economic ties with China, particularly in strategic industries. This comes as a sharp contrast to French and German leaders, who have sought to maintain their deep economic ties despite rising fears of China and Beijingโ€™s support for Moscow.

Von der Leyenโ€™s participation in Macronโ€™s state visit โ€œgives Macron a credible claim that his visit is on behalf of Europe, not just France, and itโ€™s a constructive way of one-upping German chancellor Olaf Scholzโ€™s recent solo trip,โ€ German Marshall Fundโ€™s Andrew Small said in an interview with the European Council on Foreign Relations on March 31. โ€œVon der Leyen is able to show to Xi Jinping that he canโ€™t just expect to cut side-deals with Paris and Berlin and circumvent the European Union.โ€

French deals for planes, trains, and nuclear energy

But Beijing did cut deals with Paris. While Macron was meeting with Xi, the French business delegation was busy inking a slew of deals with Chinese business leaders.

France-based Airbus announced that it will double production capacity in China of its top-selling jet, under a deal signed by CEO Guillaume Faury in Beijing on Thursday, after Chinese authorities approved a previously announced โ‚ฌ36 billion ($39.4 billion) deal for 160 plane orders.

French transport group Alstom signed a deal to build a metro in Chengdu, and French container shipping group CMA CGM agreed to work on biofuels with a Chinese group and the Shanghai port. EDF, a French electric utility company which is largely state-owned, also signed a deal to renew its long-standing partnership with Chinese state-owned CGN, both of which are major operators of nuclear plants.

Nadya Yeh