China

French presence

In China, France has a network of consulates distributed by constituencies on Chinese territory: https://cn.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/presence-francaise.

In 2024, 20,865 French were registered in the consular register in China. 

Visits

The President of the Republic visited China three times. His first state visit (January 2018) made it possible to establish the main axes of a road map. The second state visit (November 2019) enabled to make progress on several levels of the relationship (opening of the Chinese market at the Shanghai “imports fair”, museum project of the Pompidou center in Shanghai), and was the occasion of the publication of a “Beijing Call” for climate and biodiversity, in continuity with the Franco-Chinese dynamic of international mobilization for these subjects. His third state visit to China from 5 to 8 April 2023 revived the relationship after 3 years of pandemic and as international tensions increased.

President Xi Jinping also visited France three times (2014, 2019, 2024). In 2019, his second visit was marked by the joint message of defense of multilateralism launched by France and China, and the decision to associate the European Commission and the German Chancellor in a new format at the Elysee Palace. His third visit, from 5 to 7 May 2024, came to honor the 60th anniversary of the Franco-Chinese bilateral relationship and confirm the maintenance of high-level exchanges with the President of the Republic. The visit resulted in four joint statements: (1) situation in the Middle East; (2) Roadmap “From Kunming-Montréal to Nice: for a strengthened cooperation between France and China on Biodiversity and the Ocean”; (3) Artificial intelligence and governance of global issues; (4) Agricultural exchanges and cooperation.

The President of the Republic held a meeting with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 in Rio on 19 November devoted mainly to the subjects of trade tensions and the Russian war in Ukraine. The President of the Republic also met with Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Guoqing, President Xi’s special envoy for the AI Action Summit, on 10 February 2025, as well as with Vice President Han Zheng on the sidelines of UNOC in Nice in June 2025.

At the ministerial level, Prime Minister Li Qiang met with Prime Minister Elisabeth BORNE and the President of the Republic during his visit in June 2023.

The diplomatic adviser to the President of the Republic Emmanuel Bonne and Minister Jean-Noël Barrot met with Wang Yi in September 2024 on the sidelines of the UNGA. The Minister met again with Wang Yi on 15 February 2025 on the sidelines of the Munich conference and then visited China on 27 and 28 March 2025, during which he met with Wang Yi and Li Qiang. The Minister received his counterpart Wang Yi in Paris on 4 July for a bilateral meeting and the holding of the High-level Dialogue on Human Exchange. Wang Yi also met on this occasion with the President of the Republic and his diplomatic adviser.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met on 8 April 2024 in Paris with his French counterpart, as well as members of the National Interprofessional Cognac Bureau and other business leaders, ahead of the Chinese President’s visit.

The Deputy Minister in charge of Foreign Trade and Attraction Nicolas Forissier went to Shanghai from 4 to 7 November 2025 to participate in the China International Import Expo (CIIE). His predecessor Laurent Saint-Martin had met on 4 June 2025 with his counterpart Wang Wentao with a view to the resolution of the cognac dispute.

Agnès PANNIER-RUNACHER, Minister of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forestry, Sea and Fisheries met on 30 May 2025 in Beijing with GUAN Zhi’ou, Minister of Natural Resources, HUANG Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment and Mr LIU Sushe, Vice-President of the Commission for Development and Reform (NDRC).

The Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu met on 14 April 2025 in Paris with his counterpart, Minister Dong Jun.

The Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau met on 26 November 2024 in Paris with the Minister of Public Security Mr. Wang Xiaohong. 

Scientific and technological cooperation

Educational, cultural and scientific cooperation is a major axis of Franco-Chinese relations and an essential vector of influence and promotion of human exchanges. The joint declaration issued at the end of the 7th session of the High-Level Dialogue on Human Exchanges (Paris, 4 July 2025) reaffirms the joint commitment of France and China to continue and strengthen our cooperation on human exchanges. 

This Dialogue also served to reaffirm our commitment to the cross-mobility of researchers and students from both countries, in particular from France to China, to the International Volunteers in Business scheme and to the teaching of French in China and Chinese in France. The Carbon Neutral Centre, inaugurated in 2023, held its first scientific conference on the sidelines of the Dialogue.

The 15th edition of the Joint Commission on Science and Technology (19 March 2024) identified four main themes for cooperation: climate change, environment/biodiversity, healthy ageing, and theoretical chemistry.

The cultural cooperation is dense and is illustrated in particular on the occasion of the festival “Crossions”. The year 2024, the Franco-Chinese year of cultural tourism, was marked by a total of more than 900 cultural events in 54 cities. 

Other types of cooperation

France and China are pursuing an ambitious agenda in the fight against climate change, embodied in 2019 by the Beijing call for biodiversity conservation and climate change, then by the Joint Declaration of the two Presidents “From Kunming-Montréal to Nice” adopted on 6 May 2024 and finally the Joint Declaration on Climate Change adopted on 27 March 2025 by the Minister and his counterpart Wang Yi.

The cooperation pursues three main priorities: the fight against climate change, the preservation of the environment and biodiversity, and sustainable urban development. In addition, China formalized its membership in the High Ambition Coalition for Planet and Peoples, on the sidelines of COP28, which was held from 30 November to 12 December 2023. AFD has been operating in China since 2004 (47 funded projects) exclusively in the fields of climate and biodiversity. 

Human Rights in China

The subject is raised in bilateral talks at the highest level. France publicly calls on China to end intimidation against human rights defenders: the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs has spoken out following the sentencing to prison of lawyer YU Wensheng and his wife XU Yan (29 October 2024), and following that of citizen-journalist ZHANG Zhan (23 September 2025). Several Chinese personalities have been winners of the Franco-German Human Rights Prize since its inception.

France is taking up this issue in multilateral forums, and supported a joint statement on the human rights situation in Xinjiang and Tibet on 22 October 2024, delivered by Australia in the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. The Universal Periodic Review of China at the United Nations Human Rights Council (January 2024) provided an opportunity for France to make several recommendations: (i) to establish a moratorium on the death penalty; (ii) ratify the International Convention on Enforced Disappearances; (iii) guarantee the protection of freedom of religion, in particular for Uighur and Tibetan people; (iv) report on the implementation of the ILO core conventions on forced labour; (v) end arbitrary arrests and detentions of human rights defenders; (vi) guarantee freedom of expression and association, including online, including in Hong Kong.

French concerns are relayed by the European Union, particularly in the context of the EU-China dialogue on human rights (last edition on 13 June 2025, in Brussels), the continuation of which we support. Finally, on 22 March 2021, under its global human rights sanctions regime, the EU adopted restrictive measures against an entity and four Chinese nationals responsible for the crackdown on Uighurs and members of other Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

This page has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancy, the French version shall prevail.