Xi leaves Europe saying Hungary and China will enjoy 'golden voyage' in relations | DW News

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xiin Ping returns home today after a world tour of Europe, his first in five years. President XI was in Hungary for the last stop of his five-day trip. He met with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Auan in Budapest and said the two nations. would begin a

golden

journey in bilateral

relations

she and her wife also visited Serbia and France in Paris President Emanuel Macron and the head of the EU Commission, Usela Feline, pressured her to use her influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Let's get more from journalist Fabian Ketma in Rosie Bashad, DW correspondent in Beijing and Brussels, good morning you two, first to you Rosie, how has the European Union viewed this shiin ping tour?

Without a doubt, from here in Brussels it has been seen with a certain boredom and that is due to the context of this trip. is that the EU has been on a big mission in recent years to try to reduce its dependence on China, so when trying to diversify economic

relations

, for example, they often use this buzzword, risk, to try to reduce the risk of its economic ties and that The risk that the EU sees has certainly increased in the eyes of Brussels since that truly decisive moment which was the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 because, on the one hand, while the EU has been imposing successive rounds of sanctions on Russia for that ability to scale f Invasion: China, although it says it wants peace, has not condemned Moscow and, on the contrary, has been deepening its ties now, while in France the President XI

will

have felt some of the heat of that kind of hardening of the EU's stance, as we know, President Macron. he pressured President XI to try that France would like to see China using her influence over Russia to try to end this war.

It's very unlikely that we're going to see a big new shift in Chinese policy and then I think this carefully choreographed agenda on China's part meant that that was really the last time the Chinese president faced that kind of geopolitical pressure because he got a much warmer welcome. warm both in Serbia and then in Hungary and while the EU is putting pressure to try to reduce this dependence that really depends on the EU. fan unit in Beijing what is the message the Chinese wanted to send to Europe and were they successful in sending it? Well, yeah, it's actually quite interesting, so Xi Jinping basically wrote an OP that was published in both the big national media and one in France. in Serbia one in Hungary and if you read it carefully, in each article he delivered exactly the message that the host wanted to hear, for example, in France he sent, you know, he understood that the crisis in Ukraine is a cause of great concern and Then, with Macron also said that he wants to control the export of dual-use products to Russia, while at the same time, just a day later, in Serbia he sent a very strong anti-message when he visited Belgrade and I.

Think, what he does is you know he doesn't have a good track record of delivering on his promises and I think the European Union is quite aware of Cozy's rhetoric on the one hand, but then the actions speak a different language. I know I just came from the European Chamber of Commerce. Who published their survey on business confidence and you know that sentiment among European companies here in China is at an all-time low and they are complaining about overcapacity and Chinese industrial policy and those issues, of course. Macron and Commission President OA Ferine also talked about it, but Shing Ping completely ruled it out, so I don't think it would be very convincing if his mission was really to convince the European Union to continue with trade as such.

As usual, I don't think it was very successful, but let me briefly add that I think it could be seen as a victory that Macron failed to meet with OA Ferine, which he did, but he also wanted to bring in the German Chancellor. Olaf Schulz and that would have shown some kind of unity, but that was not successful and I think China really wants to play with different interests between the EU member states. Rosie, like France, Hungary is also a member of the EU, but its tone. in Hungary was markedly different to his tone in France, yes Absol, absolutely fine, Hungary is the EU country that most often disagrees with the centralized administration here in Brussels and we heard that President Macron of France brought the president from the European Commission in an offer.

I think to show unity well, there certainly was, according to an EU official. I spoke without any invitation from Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban for a centralized EU figure to join those talks, and indeed the atmosphere was very welcoming. We heard that language of a

golden

journey in Hungary. and China is now linked Hungary, interestingly,

will

take over the rotating presidency of the European Council from July, giving it a greater degree of influence over the Bloc's policy-making agenda. Hungry says he would like to see the EU deepen ties with China, well that is totally at odds with this mission that Brussels has been on to try to decrease dependency, so it really seems to me that the Chinese president has been trying to show that he will work with a Europe that wants to work with him, so if not it is necessarily divide and rule.

The mission certainly seems to divide and delight Fabian, how has this tour been viewed within China? Yes, it is quite interesting that the Chinese state media has widely published a video clip of XI Jinping's tour and it was when he met with Serbian President Alexander Vuic in Belgrade and the There were masses of people waving the Chinese and Serbian flag and, already You know, this shows that the whole trip to Europe was also orchestrated to gain propaganda here nationally, but if you talk to more people like policy experts and they have a more sober assessment I think this trip was seen as quite difficult, especially the stop in France because Xi Jinping had to listen to a lot of criticism, it was not a warm welcome, especially warm, and I think that's how it is.

It was really, um, yeah, half, so China didn't give many concessions. Not that I can admit it, but on the other hand, he won a lot. I'd say it's more of a status quo, so it wasn't particularly. successful we leave it there for the moment far beyond crch in Beijing and Rosie bashad in Brussels many thanks to both