Baptiste Morin / Photo credit: JACQUES WITT / POOL / AFP
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8:09 a.m., May 6, 2024
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in France on Sunday evening. He is starting a two-day state visit which will take him to La Mongie with Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday. During his visit, there will certainly be questions of economy and trade because the French position vis-à-vis Beijing has changed and become more assertive.
The change in strategy began a few years ago, but has become more evident recently. This is for example the case with the new automobile bonus, a small revolution in itself: no more free competition, room for protectionism. Only vehicles produced in Europe are eligible for this new aid. So no more Chinese electric cars. Even the Dacia Spring, a car from the French manufacturer, has paid the price, because it is produced in China.
According to Jean-François Dufour, director of the DCA China Analysis firm and publisher of the newsletter “The China industrial monitor”, France has moved from naivety to the search for reciprocity. “With China, we are dealing with an economic model which supports its companies at arm’s length, which allows them not to go bankrupt and therefore I think that there has been an awareness of this reality over the last few years. years and that we are prepared in France today to take it into account to deploy an economic strategy ourselves in the face of China’s very active strategy”, explains the director of the firm.
Europe is stepping up investigations
The new French position has offended Germany, for which China is a major trading partner. But Paris has obtained the affirmation of a European strategy. “Change at the European level was strongly driven by France, there is very clearly this acceleration today which is linked to the fact that the European Union has learned the lessons of the years 2010-2020, for example on photovoltaics which was rolled”, confirms Jean-François Dufour.
In recent months, Brussels has launched several investigations into electric cars, wind turbines and medical equipment. Europe wants to shed light on Chinese dumping. And Beijing takes the subject very seriously. “There are a lot of challenges for China, it is a huge market which is reaching saturation in certain areas and therefore which needs to export,” notes Jean-François Dufour. The change in European posture is all the more important in the eyes of Beijing as the country has engaged in a trade and technological war with the United States.