Chinese President Xi Jinping started last week overseas mending ties with U.S. President Joe Biden, and ended it with European leaders making the case for resisting the Biden administration’s sweeping chip curbs on China.
The shift in sentiment amounts to a victory for Xi on just his second foray outside of China since the pandemic began — a span that had seen Beijing’s relations with the U.S. and its allies go from bad to worse. In October, Biden restricted the sale of semiconductors and chipmaking equipment to China in a bid to stem its economic development, and asked key allies to comply — raising fears of a split in the global economy.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron called for engaging with Beijing and resisting efforts to divide the world into competing blocs. That followed similar appeals from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited China earlier this month, and efforts by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to coordinate with other key chipmaking nations in resisting U.S. pressure.