Xi literally called Putin his “best, most intimate friend” when, in 2018, the Russian President received China’s first ever Friendship Medal. The Chinese Premier said at the time: “No matter what fluctuations there are in the international situation, China and Russia have always firmly taken the development of relations as a priority.”

There has certainly been no significant criticism from Beijing of Russia’s conduct in Ukraine since, with Nato and EU encroachment into Eastern Europe instead being blamed for the bloodshed. It is worth comparing such unswerving loyalty with the ineffective way Macron tried to influence Putin in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Comical pictures of the French President sitting at the end of a huge table at the Kremlin, and Putin’s inscrutable stare, highlighted the vast gulf between the two men.

Macron’s attempted negotiation had also seen him invite Putin to the French Riviera in 2019, when he said: “The European continent will never be stable, will never be secure, if we don’t pacify and clarify our relations with Russia.” It all came to nothing, and — humiliated time and time again — Macron is now one of the most hawkish EU leaders as regards Ukraine, saying last week that he did not rule out sending French troops to fight the Russians there.

Such inconsistency will not impress Xi as Macron tries to buddy up to him in France. Beyond a red-carpet banquet at the Élysée Palace, the French leader will be escorting the Chinese Premier on a trip to the Pyrenees with their respective wives, to an area where Macron used to holiday as a boy.

It is the kind of very personal diplomacy that saw Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron invite Donald and Melania Trump for a meal up the Eiffel Tower during a state visit by the American president in 2017. Such optics undoubtedly generate a feel-good atmosphere, but they are by no means guaranteed to achieve anything.

Another major issue in Sino-EU relations right now is a growing trade dispute centred on China flooding the European market with cheap, subsidised goods including electric cars, while threatening huge tariffs on French imports, such as cognac. Macron frequently snaps at the Chinese for having as little respect for international trade laws as they do for the human rights of their persecuted communities such as the Uyghur Muslims — and indeed journalists, who are frequently locked up.

What the French President should have learnt from Xi by now, however, is that trying to mix such criticism with playful gestures is not much of a strategy. Macron has a Jupiterian reputation in France — he is happy to bypass parliament to rule by presidential decree, and is frequently accused of being arrogant and out-of-touch with ordinary people. But for Xi he is undoubtedly a good entry point for his first visit to Europe in five years. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will take part in talks in Paris but other key players, such as the Germans, will not.

After marking six decades of diplomatic relations between France and China, Xi will then head to Serbia and Hungary — two countries which are resolutely sympathetic to Russia. It is the kind of snub to the West for which Xi is renowned, and Macron’s despairing bonhomie will do nothing to make up for it.

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Peter Allen is a journalist and author based in Paris.

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