French President Emmanuel Macron was accompanied by Chinese Leader Xi Jinping on Friday December 5,2025 as is Fourth state visit to China,reports Reuters.
Xi Jinping accompanied the French leader amid a trip to Chengdu, China in a rare gesture reserved for the head of Europe’s second-largest economy that highlights Beijing’s focus on Paris in its ties with the European Union.
It is the first time that Xi Jinping has held an informal sightseeing meeting outside Beijing.
Even when U.S. President Donald Trump made a landmark visit to China early during his first term in 2017, and Xi lavished him with a private dinner within Beijing's Forbidden City, the trip was only confined to the Chinese capital.
Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron touched down in Beijing for a 3-day visit, where the French president was greeted by a military band and groups of children waving flags at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
Macron stressed, France and China must overcome their ‘differences’
The two leaders attended the closing of a Franco-Chinese business forum with an agenda to strengthen diplomatic ties and address global issues such as trade and war.
The country's trade deficit with the world's second-largest economy grew to €46 billion ($54 billion) in 2024.
Macron told Xi that France and China must overcome their ‘differences’
"We must continue to work towards peace and stability in the world, and in Ukraine and other regions affected by war," Macron told Xi, adding: "Our capacity to work together is decisive."
Xi also stressed Beijing's support for a ceasefire.
"China supports all efforts committed to peace and hopes that all parties will reach a fair, lasting, and binding peace agreement that is acceptable to all parties through dialogue and negotiation," said Xi.
According to analysts, the joint trip has provided Macron with a chance to project statesmanship after a tough summer in domestic politics.
The Xi-Macron meeting resulted in 12 cooperation agreements covering areas such as population aging, nuclear energy and panda conservation and no monetary total was disclosed.
“The French people love giant pandas, and on the basis of the previous cooperation, both sides will carry out a new round of cooperation in giant panda protection,” said Xi.
The Chinese president announced that China and France agreed to a new deal on panda protection.
Xi informed that the Chinese embassy promised new bears would soon be dispatched to make up for the popular pair leaving.
Beijing may see friendly ties with France as a way into expanding its influence within the 27-strong EU, but no major concessions or major business deals were signed at a ceremony between Xi and Macron, who was traveling with a big business delegation.
Macron urged Xi to cooperate on geopolitics, trade and environment as the European Union seeks China’s help in ending the Ukraine’s war, while Xi told France to maintain its independence in geopolitics.
Macron was expecting China to back France in the Ukraine war context but Xi was not in a position to offer Macron a breakthrough on the war as China has reaffirmed its support for Russia.
Analysts’ advise that the European Union EU should really reflect on its China policy and not tie it too closely to Russia and Ukraine.
Moreover, the Chinese leader was also not expected to sign off on a long-anticipated 500-jet Airbus order, for example, as that would reduce China's leverage in trade talks with the U.S., which is pressing for new Boeing commitments.
Xi also did not raise the prospect of a trade deal with the EU with Macron-which China’s top diplomat Wang Yi brought up when Estonia’s foreign minister visited last month and the Chinese commerce ministry has touted-despite talks over a landmark EU-China investment pact having been frozen since 2021.
After concluding the meeting, the French president expressed, “We are at a moment of unprecedented rupture.”
“The world we built after World War II, which was based on what we call multilateralism and therefore cooperation between powers is cracking, fracturing."
Macron also took aim at China's notion that the West's power is waning as he said, “Plenty of people will try to tell you that Europe is old and the rich countries you find in the G7 are arrogant. That the West is looking down on the Global South. But all of that is a narrative, a fabrication."
While Xi called for both sides to continue to promote mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the EU.
“China’s open door will only open wider,” Xi said, adding that the country plans to “expand market access, and opening up areas of investment and guide the cross-border, orderly, and rational layout of industrial and supply chains.”
Macron, who will host the G7 summit next year, urged Beijing to work with the group for ‘more balanced, fairer rules-based’ economic governance.
