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This week, for the first time in five years, President Xi Jinping of China is visiting Europe, with stops in France, Serbia and Hungary.<\/p>\n
Mr. Xi\u2019s trip comes at a time of tensions with many European countries over China\u2019s support for Russia in the face of its war in Ukraine, its trade practices and its apparent espionage activities<\/a>. The trip will also test Europe\u2019s delicate balancing act<\/a> between China and the United States.<\/p>\n Mr. Xi hopes to head off a trade war with the European Union as frictions rise over exports of Chinese electric vehicles and diminished market access for European companies in China. Mr. Xi will also encourage President Emmanuel Macron of France to pursue greater autonomy from the United States in a bid to weaken Washington\u2019s global dominance.<\/p>\n Here is what we know about Mr. Xi\u2019s trip, which began Sunday.<\/p>\n The three countries Mr. Xi will be visiting, experts say<\/a>, to varying degrees embrace China\u2019s push for a redefined global order. All have to some extent questioned America\u2019s postwar ordering of the world, and are eager to bolster ties<\/a> with Beijing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Hungary has close ties to China and is keen to attract Chinese investments in areas like electric car<\/a> and battery<\/a> manufacturing as Chinese producers expand beyond Asia. Serbia, too,<\/a> has warm relations with Beijing and has secured billions of dollars in Chinese investment.<\/p>\n Mr. Xi\u2019s first stop is France, where Mr. Macron recently said that Europe \u201cmust never be a vassal of the United States,\u201d and has cast France as a bridge between the \u201cGlobal South\u201d and Western powers.<\/p>\n Despite his courting of Beijing, Mr. Macron has said he is still closer to its ally, the United States, than to China.<\/p>\n \u201cI prefer to choose my relationship with the United States, with China, rather than have it imposed on me by one of the two parties, either pushing me in one direction or pulling me in the other,\u201d he said in an interview<\/a> with The Economist magazine. But, he added: \u201cVery clearly, we are not equidistant. We are allies of the Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n Before Mr. Xi\u2019s visit, Chinese diplomats expressed hopes that ties between France and China would be at the forefront of China\u2019s relations with the West<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the E.U.\u2019s executive branch, joined talks on Monday<\/a> with Mr. Xi and Mr. Macron in Paris.<\/p>\n This year is also a symbolic one for China and the three countries.<\/p>\n It is the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France and the 75th of those with Hungary.<\/p>\n This year is also the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, during the Kosovo war, which killed three Chinese journalists and set off angry protests at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Chinese authorities have continued to point to the bombing as a sign of NATO aggression and an example of why Russia was justified in feeling threatened before it decided to invade Ukraine.<\/p>\n Mr. Xi\u2019s last European visit was in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, which he spent hunkered down in China, leaving the country\u2019s borders for the first time in the fall of 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The 2019 trip included a flashy ceremony<\/a> in Rome to celebrate Italy\u2019s participation in China\u2019s Belt and Road global infrastructure project, which is aimed at expanding China\u2019s influence abroad. France rolled out the red carpet<\/a> for Mr. Xi in Paris and signed more than a dozen commercial and governmental treaties worth billions of euros, even as Mr. Macron warned that \u201cChina plays on our divisions\u201d and that \u201cthe period of European na\u00efvet\u00e9 is over.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Xi also visited Greece<\/a>, where he pledged his support to the country in its struggle with Britain to obtain the Parthenon sculptures known as the Elgin Marbles<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since Mr. Xi\u2019s last visit, there has been a widening rift in the relationship between China and much of Europe. The coronavirus pandemic<\/a>, Beijing\u2019s embrace of Russia and its repression of ethnic minorities, and a surge in Chinese exports have generated backlashes against China in many European countries.<\/p>\n China has quintupled car shipments<\/a> to foreign markets in recent years, and the European Union has recently adopted a more confrontational tone over China\u2019s trade practices. E.U. authorities have opened an investigation that could result in limits on Chinese solar exports, and have taken preliminary steps toward restricting<\/a> trade with Chinese goods that include electric cars, wind turbines and medical devices.<\/p>\n Italy has also told China that it would no longer participate in its Belt and Road Initiative, and last month, six people in Europe were charged with spying for China in the span of a week, in a sign that European countries are stepping up their response<\/a> to Chinese espionage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n At the same time, European nations vary in their views on how to engage with Beijing and benefit from economic opportunities there, and some are fearful of any imposition of European tariffs.<\/p>\nWhat is the significance of Mr. Xi\u2019s itinerary?<\/span><\/h3>\n
When was the last time Mr. Xi visited Europe?<\/span><\/h3>\n
How is the relationship between Europe and China?<\/span><\/h3>\n