French President Emmanuel Macron, who believes that personal touch is the key to diplomacy, on Tuesday invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit a 7,000-foot mountain pass in the Pyrenees mountains, where he visited the vast expanse that made an impression on him as a child. I was hoping to see the scenery. But instead, there is thick fog and heavy snow.
It was a long and slippery road up the mountain in the pouring rain, but crowds of Chinese fans holding red flags and pennants gathered in almost every village along the way, miraculously secluded in southwestern France. I moved to a different area. Their enthusiasm appears to be uniform.
Undeterred, Mr. Macron greeted Mr. Xi two hours late, holding an umbrella, at one of his favorite restaurants, L’Etape du Berger (also known as Shepherd’s Stop). There, dancers dressed in colorful local costumes moved and swayed to the music. flute, accordion, tom-tam.
Mr. Xi was expressionless, but his wife, Peng Liyuan, smiled broadly and applauded.
Mr Macron, 46, addressed Mr Xi, 70, using the familiar form “tu”, rather than the formal “vous”, which is customary between heads of state, to address the Chinese leader last year. He provided a signed yellow jersey. Tour de France winner and Danish cyclist Jonas Vindegaard.
“I know how much you love sport,” Macron said. Mr. Xi is known for his interest in soccer.
The Col du Tourmalet, where the leaders met, has a mythical status in the Tour de France. Its steep and winding climbs are a severe test. This is also an important place for Mr. Macron. Mr Macron came here regularly from his home in northern France, staying at the nearby home of his maternal grandmother, Germaine Nogues. Mr. Nog is part of his family and speaks most passionately about him.
Macron’s friend and chef Eric Abedi served lunch with 24-month cured ham from Kurobuta pigs from the region, lamb shoulder and blueberry tart. Cheese and fine wine were plentiful. The ham served as an aperitif particularly impressed Mr. Xi, who said he would promote it to his home country. The atmosphere was festive, intimate and relaxed, as Mr Macron had hoped.
What exactly it would accomplish was another matter. Throughout the two-day meeting, Mr. Xi smiled a lot but offered little, especially in response to European requests for help in ending the war in Ukraine. Mr. Macron has expressed faith in his power to seduce against previous leaders, including Russia’s Vladimir V. Putin and former U.S. President Donald J. Trump, only to be rejected or ignored. It was just that.
French officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with diplomatic protocol, said Mr. Macron has forged a uniquely close relationship with Mr. Xi since they first met as president six years ago, acting as a conduit to Mr. Xi’s intimate thinking. He said he had provided it. A leader in China that does not exist in other Western countries.
They said the Sino-French joint statement on the Middle East, released on Monday, condemning all forms of terrorism, including the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, strengthened this bond at a time of global instability. He pointed to this as proof of its importance.
Others see it differently. “You can seduce voters,” said Bertrand Bady, an international relations expert at Paris’ Polytechnic University, noting that Mr. Macron has done so on more than one occasion. Even if a “new partnership with China” were a worthy goal, “it is difficult to translate into complex international relations.”
The lunch itself was private and was a four-person affair for the two leaders and their spouses. It was planned for a terrace, but for obvious reasons it never started. The purpose was for both sides to speak freely and openly.
In a largely unfiltered case, officials said the issue of human rights in China was raised by Macron on both Monday and Tuesday, but there was no mention of it in the communiqué.
The issue has become particularly sensitive after Valérie Heyer, leader of Mr Macron’s Renaissance party in next month’s European Parliament elections, described China’s treatment of the Uyghurs in northwestern Xinjiang in the harshest terms.
In an interview with Sad Radio this week, she expressed her personal view that China’s crackdown “probably amounts to genocide.” French officials had no comment but said Mr Macron had not used the word.
However, they noted that the wine served was Jean-Luc Colombo’s 2008 vintage, the year of the Beijing Olympics, and that its “robe rouge” or red dress was the name of a famous Chinese tea made in Fujian province. I pointed out that it reminds me of. was once ruled by Mr. Xi.
Diplomacy, at least as practiced by the French, is a delicate business.
