Situationer: Does Xi's France visit signal a European shift?

This week, China’s President Xi Jinping embarked on his first state visit to Europe in five years. Beginning with a two-day stay in France, commemorating 60 years since diplomatic ties were first established between the two nations, the tour also includes vital stops in Serbia and Hungary.

With the first leg of this tour over, Western political observers have taken a predictably grim stance on the outcome of Xi’s interaction with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. Some of it appears to be fuelled by Macron’s domestic critics and opponents, who tend to criticise the French president’s overtures to leaders seen as ideological opponents to a Western world order. It was Putin two years ago, right before the conflict in Ukraine began, and it appears to be Xi now.

Much of the grim analysis, however, appears inspired by typical pro-US talking points: that Xi didn’t budge on Russia nor significantly tilted the existing balance of trade in Europe’s favor. From that rather narrow lens, Xi’s stay in France would seem to be a rather inert exercise. It is true that the Chinese president offered no major concessions on the trade front and it is true that he stuck to his guns on Russia: “China did not create the Ukraine crisis, nor is it a party to it. All along, China has been working vigorously to facilitate talks for peace,” Xi told Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during their trilateral meeting according the statement issued by China’s foreign ministry.

Read more: Xi says China ready to enhance trust, deepen cooperation with France

The world these days is more divided than it has ever been in the three decades since the Cold War ended. It is easy for the West to pin those divisions on those it frames as the ‘other’ – the Global South and rival powers like China and Russia – when they don’t bend to its worldview. But take the two prevalent conflicts – the aforementioned war in Ukraine and the one Israel wages with brutal impunity in Gaza – the double standards constantly employed by the West in reference to both, for once, make it appear equally if not more complicit in perpetuating a divided world.

The comments Xi made throughout the visit, and indeed the trip itself, reflect that one superpower is at least trying to bridge divisions where the other is digging its ideological heels in.

On the Ukraine crisis, Xi noted that China, France and the EU all wish to see the return of peace in Europe and support political settlement of the crisis. “The three parties need to jointly oppose spill over and escalation of the fighting, create conditions for peace talks, safeguard international energy and food security, and keep industrial and supply chains stable,” the Chinese foreign ministry quoted him as saying.

Read more: Xi tells Blinken US, China must be 'partners, not rivals'

More importantly, the visit yielded a significant joint statement by Xi and Macron covering the crises in the Middle East. Condemning “all violations of international humanitarian law, include acts of terrorist violence and indiscriminate attacks against civilians,” Xi and Macron underscored the “the absolute imperative of protecting civilians in Gaza in accordance with international humanitarian law.” The two leaders expressed explicit opposition to the offensive on Rafah that Israel is poised to launch, and stressed the need for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire.

Both Xi and Macron also called for a decisive and irreversible relaunch of a political process to concretely implement the two-State solution, which the former identified as the ‘fundamental way out’ of the crisis.

Where Western critics have sought to downplay Xi and Macron’s interaction, it is important to remember that the latter only recently spoke out on the need for Europe to develop and maintain its ‘strategic autonomy’.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal, and it can die,” he said in a speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris last month. Referring to Western Europe’s exclusive security dependence on the US, he noted that Washington has two priorities: “the United States first and the China question second. The European question is not a geopolitical priority.”

Xi during his stay in France, stressed that China-EU relations “do not target any third party, nor should it be dependent on or dictated by any third party.” He said that China regards Europe as an important dimension in its major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and an important partner on its path toward Chinese modernisation. “It is hoped that the EU institutions will develop the right perception of China and adopt a positive China policy,” he urged, adding that the two sides should respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, safeguard the political foundation of their relations, and uphold the basic norms of international relations.

The Chinese president drew attention to the five principles Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai put forth for peaceful coexistence 70 years ago – “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence” – which stand in stark contrast to Washington’s ‘with us or against us’ foreign policy. Only earlier this year, the United States’ top diplomat made a statement that summed up that approach: “"if you're not at the table in the international system, you're going to be on the menu,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the Munich Security Conference in February.