(Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)
Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron attended the closing ceremony of the seventh meeting of the Sino-French Business Council in Beijing on Thursday, where they spoke.
Xi stressed that both sides should respond to the uncertainties of today’s world with stability in Sino-French relations.
He called on the two sides to continue to expand new areas of bilateral economic and trade cooperation, continue to promote new progress in mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the European Union (EU), and jointly make new contributions to the reform and improvement of global governance.
Noting that this year marks the start of a new 60-year cycle for China-France relations, Xi said bilateral economic and trade cooperation has continued to gain scale and resilience, with bilateral trade reaching 68.75 billion U.S. dollars in the first ten months of 2025 and cumulative mutual investment exceeding 27 billion U.S. dollars.
China and France should seize opportunities, deepen cooperation, ensure stable and steady development of bilateral relations, with a view to jointly writing an even brighter chapter of their cooperation, Xi said.
China regards France as an important and indispensable economic and trade cooperation partner, Xi said, noting that China is happy to see France take an active part in China’s modernization and supports Chinese enterprises with the ability and willingness to invest in France.
The two sides should tap the potential of their cooperation in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, green and digital economy, biomedicine and silver economy, continue to promote cooperation in industrial and supply chains, and provide a fair, transparent, non-discriminatory and predictable business climate for enterprises of the two countries.
Noting that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the EU, Xi said that economic and trade relations between China and the EU are complementary and mutually beneficial in nature, and the two sides are fully capable of achieving dynamic balance through development.
Interdependence is not a risk, and converging interests do not bring threats, Xi noted. China and France should work to ensure that China and the EU stick to their strategic comprehensive partnership and jointly usher in five more bright new decades of China-EU relations.
According to Xi, this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and the founding of the United Nations.
“To promote the construction of a fairer and more equitable global governance system, last September I proposed the Global Governance Initiative, after the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative,” he said.
China and France should practice true multilateralism, jointly uphold the status and authority of the United Nations, safeguard the WTO-centered and rules-based multilateral trading system, and contribute to the reform and improvement of global governance, Xi said.
The Fourth Plenum of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China reviewed and adopted proposals on formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for the country’s economic and social development, Xi noted, adding that China will work to promote China’s modernization across the board and expand high-level opening-up.
French entrepreneurs are welcome to continue to share the dividends of China’s development, he added.
