France’s Macron Welcomes China’s Xi to Paris

President Xi Jinping has arrived in #France to begin talks aimed at stabilizing #China’s relationship with #Europe, as he tries to perform damage limitation on trade ties with the key bloc. The #Chinese leader shook hands with #French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal after landing in #Paris on Sunday, in his first visit to the European Union in five years. He’ll also visit Serbia — which isn’t a member state of the bloc — and #Hungary. A honeymoon on the sidelines of a Cold War: That’s how relations between Charles de Gaulle’s France and Communist China began 60 years ago, and how #Xi Jinping wants to portray his relationship with Emmanuel #Macron during his first European tour in five years. But despite the warm rhetoric and hopes of a tariff-war climbdown, the reality is we’re firmly in the hangover stage — and it’s sobering-up time, not least because of the highly symbolic cognac served to Xi. Read more: