President Xi Jinping arrived today in France, as France and China celebrate in 2024, the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and China, on January 27, 1964.
The quality of Franco-Chinese relations has no comparison either in the Western world as a whole, nor between a Western country, and the leading economy in the world in purchasing power, as the still developing economy of China is today.
Since the beginning of the year, China and France are richly celebrating the Franco-Chinese friendship, in all areas of collaboration, in literature and arts, in scientific and economic endeavors, in cinema and theater, etc. These include a joint historical overview at the Versailles Castle and the Forbidden City museum in Beijing, going back to relations between King Louis XIV of France and Emperor Kangxi of China; Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is being performed in a Chinese version in Beijing, and Charles Gounod’s opera Faust in Shanghai, are being presented through joint Franco-Chinese efforts. And there is also an ongoing effort by the Chinese in France to organize people-to-people exchanges in France, through the Franco-Chinese associations. Hence 4,000 children were invited to the Beijing circus in Paris, and some 1,000 people attended a celebration organized by an active local figure in Coutances, Normandy, while several hundreds participated in a similar event at Aubervilliers, a Paris suburb that is a kind of Chinatown. Jacques Cheminade was the only French politician participating at the Aubervilliers event, and one of the rare ones to participate in Coutances.
During Xi Jinping’s time in France, there are dozens of meetings in the Paris area on the special relationship and the need to develop it further, to which Solidarité et Progrès and the French Schiller Institute have been invited. Cheminade spoke at one of these events in Paris on May 4.
