Xi woos Macron with sightseeing trip

Chinese leader Xi Jinping accompanied French President Emmanuel Macron to Chengdu yesterday, a rare gesture seemingly reserved for the head of Europe's second-largest economy that highlights Beijing's focus on Paris in its ties with the European Union.

Even when US President Donald Trump made a landmark visit to China early during his first term in 2017, and Xi lavished him with a private dinner within Beijing's Forbidden City, the trip was confined to the Chinese capital.

But despite the apparent bonhomie between Xi and Macron, the French president's visit so far has resulted in little beyond bolstering Beijing's diplomatic credentials, as world leaders turn to China seeking economic assurances due to Trump's tariffs, analysts say. It has also provided Macron with a chance to project statesmanship after a tough summer in domestic politics.

Investors are watching to see whether a day that began with the French president surprising fellow joggers in the city's Jincheng Lake Park, before joining Xi at a historic dam site, will end with major commercial deals or a thaw in EU-China trade tensions, given that Macron has been joined on his fourth state visit to China by the heads of some of France's biggest firms.

A meeting in the Chinese capital on Thursday only resulted in 12 cooperation agreements covering areas such as population ageing, nuclear energy and panda conservation, and no monetary total was disclosed.

"I think they (France) thought that Xi would be in a position to offer a lot because Europe is really preparing this economic security doctrine," said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, senior fellow at the think tank Bruegel.