【Wen/Observer Net, Liu Bai】
French President Macron's three-day visit to China has attracted great attention in French media. BFM TV reported on December 3 that the French government hopes to promote Chinese investment in France, especially introducing advanced technologies from China in fields such as batteries, photovoltaics, and automobiles, to help French industry catch up with the technological gap. Paris has already acknowledged that over the past 40 years, it was mainly Europe transferring technology to China, but the situation has now "completely reversed".
According to the report, one of the core goals of Macron's visit to China is to persuade China to increase its investment in France, so as to learn from Chinese technology and help French industry bridge the gap.
The French presidential office stated in a statement last week: "The process of globalization over the past 30 years has greatly promoted China's development and innovation... Now China has highly advanced technology that can be shared with trusted partners including Europe."
This prospect marks a reversal in history. The report states that since the 1980s, European companies have invested in various provinces in China, and for the past four decades, technology transfer has always been from Europe to China.
French President Macron's visit to China IC Photo
Although France's investment in China is still three times that of China's investment in France, China has formed significant advantages in areas such as batteries, photovoltaics, and electric vehicles.
According to data from the French Ministry of Finance, France's investment in China reached 40 billion euros in 2023, while China's investment in France was 13.5 billion euros during the same period.
"Everything has reversed. We are the emerging countries, and they are the developed countries," said Nicolas Dufour, president of the French Public Investment Bank (Bpifrance), to AFP.
"Therefore, what they did to us, we should do to them now. It is necessary to require the establishment of 'joint ventures' and achieve technology transfer,"
France specifically cited the case of Orano Group. The group reached an agreement with Chinese XTC New Energy Company in late 2024, planning to produce key materials in Dunkirk.
This kind of joint venture is "one of the feasible models for investment in France," but the Elysee Palace clearly stated that "no mandatory rules will be set."
"This is a good strategy!" said Philippe Aghion, the 2025 Nobel laureate in economics. "The key is to avoid being passive and ensure that both sides achieve two-way technology transfer."
The French government also emphasized "absolute respect for national sovereignty" to avoid repeating the fate of telecom giant Huawei. The first factory of Huawei outside China was originally planned to start production in Alsace, France at the end of 2025, but it remains idle.
In 2023, the European Commission had called on all 27 EU member states and telecom operators to exclude Huawei and ZTE from mobile communication networks.
Nicolas Dufour believes that in the current context of tense international trade, Chinese investment in Europe aligns with its own interests, helping it "bypass European tariff barriers."
"Europe is a huge market, and China has a strong desire to export," added Aghion.
"In addition, China also has a demand for cooperation in the field of technology. Europe still leads China in publishing scientific research papers, and we have top-level research talents, but often lack the ability to convert research into breakthrough innovations."
"China is good at innovation, so the Chinese side may be interested in cooperation," said Aghion.
However, Nicolas Dufour also expressed concern that France may not be China's top priority for investment. During his recent visit to China, he found that Chinese officials had expressed dissatisfaction with France's "labor costs and social conflicts."
Nevertheless, according to data from the French Ministry of Finance, more than 250 Chinese enterprises established branches in France in 2023, employing nearly 24,000 people.
At the same time, other European countries are actively seizing the opportunity.
Hungary and Spain have successfully signed multiple agreements with Chinese battery and electric vehicle giants such as CATL and BYD, even making concessions on reciprocity principles and technology transfer.
"In these two countries, car production uses Chinese parts and Chinese workers," said Stefanos Kastrinakis, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy.
But this strategy has yielded significant results: According to a report released by the Mercator Institute for China Studies and consulting firm Rhodium Group in May, Hungary attracted one-third of the 10 billion euros in Chinese investments in Europe in 2024.
In recent years, France's and the EU's overall trade deficit with China has expanded, leading to multiple trade disputes between China and the EU in various industries.
According to data cited by Nikkei Asia, France's trade deficit with China widened to $10.6 billion in the first ten months of 2025, compared to $9.4 billion in 2024. At the same time, the bilateral trade relationship is seriously imbalanced. France mainly exports dairy products, wine, cosmetics, and luxury goods to China, while China exports electrical appliances, machinery, furniture, and increasingly electric vehicles to France.
On November 12, at the container terminal of Nanjing Longtan Port Area of Jiangsu Port Group, new energy vehicles are waiting to be loaded for export. IC Photo
European media Euractiv mentioned that between May 2024 and May 2025, China's exports to the EU increased by 12%, with exports to France increasing by 24% and to Germany by 21.5%.
"Chinese manufacturing is rapidly moving towards high-end markets, and in some cases, it has even surpassed European counterparts," said Thomas Gries, an economist at the French research center Center for International Economic Research and Information (CEPII). "The survival of European industry is in jeopardy."
Francois Godemont, an Asian advisor at the French think tank Montaigne Institute, recognized that China has "particularly advanced technology" and called on European leaders to seek technology transfer from China.
He also pointed out that since the 1990s, when European companies invested in China, there was a large amount of technology transfer. Now, Europeans hope for a "reverse" technology transfer.
In fact, the EU has long been playing small tricks, demanding that Chinese companies exchange technology for market access. In February this year, a European study claimed that Europe might need to use regulations to require Chinese battery manufacturers to transfer technology in exchange for state aid, otherwise Europe could become an "assembly plant" for Chinese battery manufacturers.
Bloomberg reported on October 14 that the EU is considering new regulations requiring Chinese companies investing in Europe to meet specific conditions to enter key markets, including mandatory technology transfer, using a certain proportion of EU goods or labor, achieving product value-added within the EU, and even forcing the establishment of joint ventures to enhance their industrial competitiveness.
As for the baseless accusations by the EU regarding "forced technology transfer," Xinhua News Agency once pointed out that in fact, there is no law in China that requires foreign companies to transfer their technology to Chinese partners. Technology transfer between companies is based on contracts and is the result of voluntary transactions by market entities. China's requirements for joint ventures and equity ratios in specific sectors are the result of negotiations between China and WTO members, which comply with WTO rules and China's commitments upon joining the WTO. This is a common practice adopted by most countries and has nothing to do with forced technology transfer.
China has also emphasized this issue, stating that the Chinese government has always attached great importance to intellectual property protection and has taken many powerful measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of domestic and foreign intellectual property rights holders, with achievements that are evident. In terms of intellectual property cooperation, China and the EU have established an intellectual property working group mechanism. Through this mechanism, China and the EU have maintained effective communication and achieved positive results in many areas.
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