French PM starts 5-day visit

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault (right) tours the Forbidden City at the start of his visit to China on Thursday. Ayrault is on a five-day tour, during which he will meet Chinese leaders in Beijing and travel to the cities of Wuhan and Guangzhou. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

Length of Ayrault's stay is seen as affirmation of growing relationship

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault began his five-day visit to China on Thursday, continuing intensified high-level contacts and exchanges between Paris and Beijing to boost political trust and deepen economic cooperation.

At the start of his stay in Beijing, Ayrault toured the Forbidden City and delivered a speech at a Sino-French economic symposium, attended by hundreds of French and Chinese entrepreneurs and business leaders.

He is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and Chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee Zhang Dejiang on Friday.

The visit once again confirms France's intention to seek closer interaction with China's top leadership and to refresh relations, French and Chinese analysts said.

Pierre Picquart, a China observer and professor of geopolitics at the University of Paris-VIII, said, "Paris now understands it is time to have a close relationship with Beijing as it is not just a rising power they need to deal with but also an indispensable partner with whom to build a new world economic and financial order."

Ding Chun, a professor of European studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said, "The French leaders now realize they should respect China's core interests if they would like to grab the opportunities brought about by China's economic development.

"Ayrault's visit is one element of a series of China visits by French officials over the past few months, which show China-France ties are getting warmer."

In April, French President Francois Hollande became the first head of state from a major Western nation to visit China after its new leadership took office, marking an important landmark for the bilateral relationship.

Two weeks ago, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici visited China to lobby for Paris as a leading offshore renminbi trading center in the eurozone.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Paris in late October and held discussions with Hollande and his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, on bilateral issues, as well as pressing international issues, including the Syrian crisis and Iranian nuclear issue.

Such intensified contacts indicate that politicians from both countries realize that greater political trust and mutual understanding are needed to boost bilateral ties, experts said.