While the larger economies of Germany and Britain wrestled with domestic politics, French president Emmanuel Macron made the most of his first visit to China last week. With Angela Merkel forging a new ruling coalition and Theresa May wrestling with negotiations over Britain’s exit from the European Union, Macron seized the opportunity to stake France’s interest in the 21st century Europe-China partnership. He laid out the foundations of expanded economic and trade relations, on top of reciprocal ties in nuclear energy, aviation and high-speed rail technology, as China increasingly becomes a consumer and services society.

The importance of the bilateral relationship between the world’s second and fifth largest national economies was marked by “firsts” in the Macron visit – his first trip to Asia since his presidential election win last May and the first to China by a European leader since the 19th national congress of the Chinese Communist Party last October. But it is clouded by a US$36 billion trade surplus in China’s favour, an issue he addressed in balanced and nuanced terms, leaving a good first impression on his hosts. “I want us to define together the rules of a balanced relationship in which everyone will win,” he said. Referring to China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” to revive Silk Road trade routes, he added they were “never only Chinese “ and the new roads could not go only one way.