During a meeting yesterday in Beijing with Segolene Royal, the French Socialist Party's presidential candidate, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan spoke of China's high hopes that the Socialist Party of France and the Communist Party of China (CPC) would maintain their close cooperation in developing the Sino-French strategic partnership.

 

Royal is bidding to become the country's first woman president this spring.

 

Tang said Royal's visit to China would improve relations between the CPC and the Socialist Party of France, helping to cement partnership and collaboration, a view echoed by Royal who said that it was in the interest of both peoples to develop the bilateral relationship.

 

Cai Fangbo, long-term Chinese ambassador to France throughout the 1990s, said China and France share many common interests that will lead to the improvement of multilateral ties.

 

"Both support cultural diversity; and their economies are highly complementary," Cai, now the chairman of the China Association of French Studies, told China Daily.

 

Royal's visit to China comes in the midst of a furious political campaign in France as she tries to both shore up her foreign-policy credentials and raise her profile on the international scene, said Cai.

 

This journey is only her second foreign trip since receiving her party's nomination, after her brief sojourn in the Middle East.

 

Royal's visit to China will be focusing on economic ties, a hotly contested topic during her ongoing political campaign, with France's workers clamoring as the country's manufacturing jobs are increasingly moving overseas.

 

She earlier called for closer collaboration between French companies and their Chinese counterparts, saying that France should view China and its burgeoning economy as an avenue for opportunity rather than as a threat.

 

"I want businesses to come to the Chinese market without being afraid," she said on a visit to the construction site of the National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics.

 

Royal is heading up a 15-member delegation that began its four-day visit to Beijing on Saturday.

 

Today, she will meet with both Vice President Zeng Qinghong and Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, before giving a lecture to students at the China Foreign Affairs University and visiting a French telecommunications research center.

 

Royal's weekend schedule revolved around touring some of Beijing's sights, both the well-known and low-key. Her 30-minute ramble on the Great Wall at Badaling on Saturday was followed by a whistle-stop tour of the Forbidden City, after being welcomed yesterday morning by Wang Jiarui, head of the international department of the CPC. 

 

After leaving the Forbidden City, Royal made her way to the Dongsi Olympic Committee local authority, where she admired arts and crafts handmade by neighborhood volunteers demonstrating their support for Beijing's Olympic efforts.

 

(China Daily, china.org.cn January 8, 2007)