Nothing filtered of this "private" evening. Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and their wives dined together on Thursday, May 2, at La Rotonde in Paris. According to their entourages, the French head of state and the German chancellor, whose relations seem to be on a more relaxed footing after months of tension, discussed the sensitive issues of the moment, starting with the visit to Europe next week by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

With Xi due to visit France on May 6 and 7, before traveling to Hungary and Serbia, the Europeans are making a concerted effort to attempt to "rebalance" their trade with China, while urging it, without much success, to use its influence on Russia to seek a way out of the war in Ukraine. But fundamentally, they fear becoming casualties of the tensions between Washington and Beijing.

While the prospect of Donald Trump's return to the White House is taken seriously, Macron and Scholz also coordinate on the subject of European defense, at a time when Russia is on the offensive in Ukraine, with the increasingly strong support of China, even if the latter is wary of supplying arms directly to Moscow and officially declares its "neutrality" in the conflict.

Scholz and Macron already had a telephone conversation on Friday, April 12, just before a trip to Beijing – the second in less than 18 months – by the head of the German government. On Monday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is due to participate in part of the talks between Xi and Macron, who is seeking to give a European dimension to the Franco-Chinese dialogue, to carry more weight vis-à-vis Beijing. The head of the European executive had already been invited to join the French president on his visit to Beijing in April 2023. Inviting the Twenty-Seven to reduce their dependence on China, she had not hesitated, on that occasion, to adopt a firmer tone than that of the French President, who at the time was primarily concerned with reviving relations paralyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Defending Europe's 'strategic interests'

In an interview with British weekly The Economist, on the eve of Xi's arrival in France, Macron called on Europe to defend its "strategic interests" and "national security" through "reciprocity" in its trade relations with Beijing. "There are many sectors in which China demands that producers be Chinese, because they are too sensitive. Well, we Europeans have to be able to do the same thing," he said.

In Brussels, France supports the anti-subsidy investigation launched in October 2023 by the European Commission into electric vehicles, which China exports in large quantities to the EU. This production is "receiving massive aid" from the Chinese authorities, according to Macron in his The Economist interview. "During his visit, President Xi will ask Mr. Macron to intervene in order to stop this procedure," China's ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, recently asserted, denouncing a "protectionist" measure. Germany is above all concerned with avoiding any form of uncoupling with China, even though it has undertaken to diversify its trade in Asia. It may also be fearful of possible retaliatory measures against its automotive industry, which has a strong presence in the Chinese market.