French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will try on Thursday at a meeting with Xi Jinping, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, to make Europe’s voice heard in the case of the war in Ukraine, writes AFP.

Both leaders will be received later in the day by the Chinese president at the People’s Palace in Beijing.

In recent weeks, international pressure has increased on China to encourage it to join the peace process in Ukraine. Because while Beijing declares itself officially neutral, Xi Jinping never condemned the Russian invasion and never even spoke on the phone with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

Instead, he recently traveled to Moscow to reaffirm his alliance with the Russian president, presenting an anti-Western front.

In this context, Emmanuel Macron has ambitions “to be the voice that unites Europe”, as he stated in his speech on Wednesday. “Therefore, coming to Beijing accompanied by the President of the European Commission” “should emphasize the coherence of this approach.”

But will they be the same?

In the Chinese capital on Wednesday, the French president said Beijing could play an “important role” in “finding a path to peace” in Ukraine, hailing China’s “willingness to participate in resolving the conflict” as he launched a 12-point document summarizing his position in February.

Ursula von der Leyen, for her part, issued a much starker warning in Brussels last week: “How China continues to respond to Putin’s war will be a determining factor in the future relationship between the EU and China.”

“Now, after he gave his speech, he is clearly in Beijing’s sights because he has presented a rather firm and tough vision, which is not at all like that of Emmanuel Macron,” Marc Julien, head of China operations, told AFP. French Institute. of International Relations (Ifri).

“So we will see how they distribute the roles,” he adds, the firm position of the European leader determines “that Emmanuel Macron will be preceded by Ursula von der Leyen.”

But “a good cop-bad cop game between Macron and von der Leyen in Beijing will instantly weaken the European narrative of a united front,” Antoine Bondaz of the Foundation for Strategic Studies warned in a research note.

President Macron, who will be hosted by Premier Li Qiang in the morning followed by National Assembly Speaker Zhao Leji, will hold a one-on-one meeting with Xi Jinping in the afternoon before making statements to the press, a three-way interview that would include her and von der Leyen and finally a state dinner.

The visit comes at a new moment of tension over the Taiwan issue, with a meeting in the United States between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. On Thursday, Beijing promised a “decisive” response.

China considers the island of Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, as one of its provinces, which it has not yet annexed to the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.