“I’m making an attempt to elucidate to the Chinese that their commerce surplus is untenable and that they’re killing their very own clients, primarily by not importing a lot from us,” the French chief stated.
An analogous imbalance exists between Europe’s €232 billion funding inventory in China — the whole worth of accrued portfolio investments and FDI — and China’s €65 billion in Europe, in response to information for 2023.
“We acknowledge that they’re superb in some areas. But we will not be consistently importing,” Macron stated. “Chinese companies have to come back to Europe, identical to EDF and Airbus beforehand went to China, and create worth and alternatives for Europe.”
He added, nonetheless, that “Chinese investments in Europe should not be predatory, by which I imply in pursuit of hegemony and creating dependencies.”
France takes up the 2026 presidency of the G7 group of main superior economies on Jan. 1 and can host the G7 summit in Evian, France, in June. Bloomberg reported final month that Macron is contemplating inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the summit and intends to make use of its presidency to revive the G7 to its former world standing.
Macron warned within the Les Echos interview that Europe may be pressured to slap customs duties on Chinese imports, because the U.S. has completed underneath Donald Trump, and accused Beijing of “hitting the guts of Europe’s innovation and industrial mannequin.”
But quite than extra confrontation, the French president proposed a truce with Beijing — “the mutual dismantling of our aggressive insurance policies, similar to restrictions on the export of semiconductor machines on the European facet and limitations on the export of uncommon earths on the Chinese facet.”
