Forty years ago almost to the day, under president Charles de Gaulle, France became the first major western country to recognise Beijing as the legitimate government of China at a time when the People's Republic was diplomatically isolated.
Today, as President Hu Jintao arrives in Paris on a fanfare-filled official visit, Beijing will be returning the favour: while recognition of Chinese economic and political might in the global arena mounts, France has seen its influence wane, dangling precariously on the edge of what some French intellectuals and analysts fear could become geopolitical irrelevance. Pierre Picquart, a specialist on Chinese affairs who advises the French government and the European Union in their relations with China, says that Mr Hu's sojourn will help 'return to France its influence in the world'.
For the French government, building closer ties with China will help it advance one of the major pillars of its foreign policy: creating a multi-polar world where all states have a voice on important global issues through a strong United Nations, rather than allowing a unilateralist United States to call the shots. Mr Hu's visit 'helps us co-operate with a China that can aid in creating equilibrium in the global context,' said Mr Picquart.
If this view seems self-serving for a country that many sceptics say is really just using multilateralism as a tool for bolstering France's international might, it is also one that can work to China's own benefit.
After all, Beijing has repeatedly, over recent years, called for the establishment of a 'new world order' where big powers develop common interests.
In practice, however, France has found itself out on a limb on matters of geopolitical balance. For example, while China also opposed the war in Iraq, it did so quietly, thus avoiding the sort of wrath Washington has dealt out to Paris over the last year, but at the same time missing an opportunity to ensure that matters of global impact take into account interests other than those of the US.