Macron seeks united front on China

MONACO: Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Monaco on the French Riviera on Sunday seeking to press ambitious commercial goals ahead of talks with France’s Emmanuel Macron who is trying to forge a united European front to contend with Beijing’s advances.

Xi arrived at the airport of the resort city of Nice accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan to be welcomed by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and an guard of honour. Prior to meeting with Macron, Xi went to the nearby principality of Monaco, where he was received by Prince Albert II and where a government spokesman said bilateral talks would "address economic and environmental issues".

Xi, who has made establishing China as a global player central to his government, travelled from Italy, whose government became the first G7 state to sign up to his landmark new "Silk Road" infrastructure project, a massive undertaking to join Asia to Europe.

Washington and some EU states fear the huge project will give China too much sway. But Xi says it would be a two-way street of investment and trade. Germany criticised Rome over its participation in the new Silk Road project.

"In a world with giants like China, Russia or our partners in the United States, we can only survive if we are united as the EU. And if some countries believe that they can do clever business with the Chinese, then they will be surprised when they wake up and find themselves dependant," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

The EU’s German budget commissioner, Gunther Oettinger, told the Funke newspaper group that Europe should ensure it retains its autonomy and sovereignty when dealing with China. He expressed concern that already "infrastructure of strategic importance ... are no longer in European but in Chinese hands.

Amid tight security, Xi and his wife were on Sunday evening to join Macron and his wife for a private dinner at nearby Beaulieu-sur-Mer overlooking the Mediterranean during which they would have what a Chinese official termed "a deep exchange of views on Sino-French, Sino-European relations and international and issues of mutual interest."