PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron is calling for an update of the country’s economic ties with China, just as his counterpart Xi Jinping is expected to travel to France for a state visit.

In a wide-ranging interview with French weekly newspaper La Tribune Dimanche, Mr Macron said Europe wants more reciprocity in its economic ties with China, in order to better ensure its economic security. 

“I’m calling for an ‘aggiornamento’ because China is now in excess capacity in many areas and exports massively to Europe,” he said in the interview, using the Italian word for update.

Mr Xi is expected to land in France on May 5 in the afternoon, the first stop of a five-day tour in Europe. The visit comes as ties reach their most fraught point in decades, amid a series of probes by the European Union into excessive subsidies and accusations of spying and state-sponsored cyber attacks from China.

Though Mr Macron is said to have backed a key EU investigation into Chinese electric vehicles late in 2023, he is also on a charm offensive as he tries to entice investment from the world’s No. 2 economy. 

After hosting Mr Xi at a dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris, he will take his Chinese guest to a part of the Pyrenees mountains where he spent time at his grandmother’s house as a child. Mr Xi in 2023 invited Mr Macron to share tea at the residence of the Guangdong governor, a post once held by his father.

Despite Mr Macron’s tough stance on economic issues, the French President is defending Europe’s role as a balancing power that allows China to remain included in the global discussion.

“Let’s be clear, I’m not proposing to distance ourselves from China,” he said in the interview. “Whether it’s about climate or about safety, we need the Chinese.” BLOOMBERG