As French President Emmanuel Macron was making a PR trip to the Brazilian Amazon Forest in his rather desperate search for positive agenda photo-ops, his newly appointed foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to prepare a planned May visit to France by leader Xi Jinping.

MSM will tell you that Séjourné ‘pressed China’ today (1) on trade issues and also the war in Ukraine.

The French FM is repeating the EU line taken by most EU European leaders – a stance that has precious little chance of changing China’s actions.

Associated Press reported:

“’The rebalancing of our economic partnership is a priority, as it is for our European partners’, Séjourné said at a joint news conference with Wang. ‘The European Union is a very open market, the most open in the world. But the current deficits with a certain number of countries, including China, are not sustainable for us’.

European officials have expressed concern that a flood of low-priced Chinese-made electric vehicles could disrupt production and displace jobs in Europe. The EU is investigating whether Chinese government subsidies for EVs give an unfair advantage to Chinese auto exporters. European companies operating in China are complaining that recent changes to national security laws have made it riskier to invest and do business in the country.”

Chinese officials, for their part, object to the EU’s ‘de-risking’ strategy of relying too much on China for vital supplies and minerals.

FM Wang hopes it doesn’t negatively affect business sentiment.

“’I believe the facts have proved and will continue to prove that China constitutes opportunities to Europe, rather than risks’, he said. ‘The two sides are partners not opponents’.

He also said that China is willing to import more ‘high-quality French products and services’ and is working to resolve the concerns raised by European companies, including restrictions on the transfer of data overseas.”

Of course, Ukraine was a topic for the EU leader.

Politico reported:

“The Chinese government ‘plays a key role in the respect of international law, including on Ukraine’s sovereignty, and therefore we are clearly expecting that China will send very clear messages to Russia’, Séjourné said during a press conference in the Chinese capital speaking alongside his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

China presents itself as neutral on the Ukraine war and hasn’t formally condemned Russia for the invasion. Instead, Beijing has deepened ties with Moscow — even deciding to ditch the United States dollar for bilateral trade.

Last month, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs warned about the war escalating and said both Ukraine and Russia ‘agree that negotiations, rather than guns, will ultimately end this war’. China wants Europe to let Russia sit at the table for future peace talks — or Beijing will boycott such discussions.”

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The post Trade Disputes and Diverging Views on Ukraine: French and Chinese Foreign Ministers Try To Smooth Differences in Preparation to XI Jinping’s May Visit to France appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.