Emmanuel Macron enters the packed conference room at the Hotel Hyatt in Shanghai shortly after 9pm on Monday night - he looks tired, he has landed in China just over five hours ago.
In the audience sit high-ranking representatives of German and French companies, CEOs and supervisory board members of BASF, Siemens, L'Oréal and the luxury goods group Louis Vuitton, many men in dark blue suits. Also medium-sized companies from both countries - including a German stationery manufacturer from Birkenfeld with 20 employees and a cattle breeder from the French Salers.
They all traveled to the Chinese Import Fair, which will open in Shanghai on Tuesday. Macron is the guest of honor at this fair and wants to discuss with them the problems of Europeans in the Chinese market.
There is no one without the other
Right next to Macron, the German Minister of Education and Research, Anja Karliczek (CDU), moves forward to the built-up stage. It's an unequal pair: the French president, who many are waiting for so eagerly and with whom they would all like to take a selfie.
And the woman from Germany, at least most of the French in the hall do not know who she is at all and whisper their neighbors ask for the name of the blonde woman.
Ludovic Marin / AFP
Anja Karliczek and Emmanuel Macron in China
There are chairs in the front, with the minister and the president replaced by Phil Hogan, the designated EU Trade Commissioner. This conference room is intended as a political signal: If China talks to France, it will not speak with France alone, but with Germany, with Europe. There is no one without the other.
Since March of this year, this is the new China strategy in the Élysée Palace. At that time, China's President Xi Jinping was on a state visit to France, Macron had demonstratively invited Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to Paris. Macron was much praised for this step.
He was considered the European leader, who understood how to meet China, and who was not afraid to implement this new course to the surprise of the Chinese. Shortly before, Italy had signed an agreement with Beijing for the major infrastructure project of the "New Silk Road"; It looked as if Beijing knew how to benefit from a divided, weakened Europe in its own way.
"The more precise and clear we are, the greater the chance"
In Shanghai, Macron now wants to continue what began in March. "We need a common European strategy to achieve results," he explains before the German and French entrepreneurs.
It is up to the Europeans to set an agenda and negotiate hard. "The more precise and clear we are, the greater the chance that we will get results in China." It's about a lot, also about achieving great progress in climate policy with China - "otherwise we may miss the decisive momentum".
He announces a first economic success: On Wednesday, the EU will sign an agreement in Beijing to protect the so-called geographical identity of individual products.
France wants to conclude 40 contracts
According to Macron, it would not have come about if there had been no "European interaction, no joint action". Europe has been wrestling with this agreement for years, and it is particularly important to the French. Counterfeiting and copying of Champagne, Roquefort cheese, and Bordeaux wines are punishable by the classification.
Economy, culture and climate - these are the three major axes that Macron spends on this visit to China. A total of 40 contracts France wants to complete, many of them in the food sector.
Large orders will not be there, but the French negotiators are still hoping that the Chinese will commission a factory to recycle nuclear fuel. The budget would be 11 billion euros. That would be good for Paris. The reason: France's trade deficit with China is 29 billion.
"Why did not at least a second minister come along?"
Macron arrived with a large delegation, with only five ministers accompanying him. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire sit in the front row on Monday night. The Germans are represented only by Minister of Research and Education Karliczek.
Many entrepreneurs in the room who got shining eyes on Macron's performance can not understand that. "Why did not at least a second minister come along to show that we are serious about the new Europe speaking with one voice?" Asks one of them.
Yes, why not?
The Germans have just a different culture than the French, says Karliczek the SPIEGEL. "We do not all have to travel together, but it was important for us to show presence this evening."
The minister came from India, where she had just accompanied Chancellor Merkel on her state visit. The decision that she alone represents the Federal Republic of Shanghai in Shanghai apparently fell only recently. Perhaps also because the German government is more reluctant to support the Chinese import fair, which many see as a mere propaganda show.
"We know what the Chinese want"
Karliczek stresses the importance of cooperation with France: "We know what the Chinese want, but we can counter them if we as Europeans remain strong and united." In a conversation she announced that the government in Berlin would continue Macron's new China strategy during the German EU Presidency in the second half of 2020.
"Starting in January, we will be discussing and preparing specific topics in the specialist departments across borders." According to Karliczek, the planned EU-China summit in Leipzig in September will include signing the long-awaited investment agreement between the EU and China. It would be a milestone.
On Tuesday morning, the minister visited with Macron the import fair, then she flew back. The French president was then allowed to taste French red wines and beef with head of state Xi Jingping.
AFP
For good: Macron and Xi at the wine tasting
In the evening, after the inauguration of the first branch of the Paris Center Pompidou outside Europe, there will be a "very private dinner" between Xi and the French President, the Elysée Palace. The wives of the two heads of state will also be there.
Macron wants to give up "megaphone diplomacy"
A short time later, Macron flies further to Beijing, where on Wednesday the agreements of the visit are signed. For the same day, the Chinese leadership is said to have invited another guest there: Carrie Lam, the head of government of Hong Kong. Many consider this meeting with great concern.
Of course, the French President will also address all the critical issues, assured counselors in the Elysée before his departure - but not in a "megaphone diplomacy", but "in a frame of respect and openness frame".
In the final document of the G7 summit in Biarritz in August, all summit participants stressed Hong Kong's independence and demanded an end to violence - to the great annoyance of China, which forbids any interference and, as a precaution, repeated this by its Foreign Minister before Macron's visit to China. At least in public, the French president will probably stick to it.