According to CCTV news, on the afternoon of April 5, French President Macron arrived in Beijing and began his state visit to China. Accompanying the visit was a government delegation composed of a number of senior French government officials, more than 60 French entrepreneurs and more than 20 French cultural figures, including executives from the aviation industry, luxury goods industry, banking industry and other fields, as well as artists, musicians and the director of the Panda Zoo.
This is Macron’s third visit to China after taking office as French President, and also his first visit to China during his second term as president.
According to French media CNEWS, the accompanying company representatives include Danone, EDF, L'Oréal, Veolia, Airbus, Club Med, Safran, Orano and BNP Paribas) etc.
It is reported that Airbus will conduct a new round of aircraft order negotiations with China and will develop short- and medium-haul routes in China. According to Reuters reported by Observer.com, in July last year, China's three major aviation groups ordered 292 Airbus aircraft in one go. This was not only one of the largest orders in Airbus' history, but also consolidated Airbus' market position in China. It also had a huge impact on its competitor Boeing of the United States.
Cultural figures include French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, French electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre, and French Zoo Parc de Beauval director Rodolphe Delord.
Jean-Jacques Annaud is a French national treasure director who has in-depth cooperation with Chinese films. He once directed the film "Wolf Totem" and his "Notre Dame de Paris Burning" will be released in China soon.
Jean-Michel Jarre is a world-famous performer, composer, and electronic music master. He has received the highest knighthood of the French Legion of Honor. He is also the first Western artist to perform in China since 1976. In May 2019, the 54-year-old famous actor Gong Li and the 71-year-old Jean-Michel Jarre appeared at the Cannes Film Festival and later announced their remarriage.
Rodolphe Draud is the director of the Beauval Zoo in France. He accompanied Macron and his wife on their visit to China in 2019. Beauval Zoo is France's largest and the only zoo in France with giant pandas.
In 1973, France became one of the first countries to receive pandas lent by China. Currently, there are 5 giant pandas in the Beauval Zoo: mother "Huanhuan" and father "Yuanzai" (arrived in France in 2012), son "Yuanmeng" (born in 2017), and twin daughters "Huanlili" and "Yuandudu" (born in 2021).
However, according to the current standard agreement, panda cubs born outside China also belong to China. When the pandas reach adulthood (reaching the age of four), they will be returned to China. In addition, "Huanhuan" and "Yuanzai" came to Beauvale Wildlife Park from the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in 2012. The 10-year Sino-French giant panda breeding cooperation plan was supposed to expire in 2022, but due to the epidemic, it was postponed to 2024 and will expire next year.
French media said that one of the important tasks of DeLode's follow-up visit was to solve the leasing issue of giant pandas. According to a previous report by "European Times", Beauval Zoo made it clear as early as 2022 that it hoped to extend the lease terms of "Huanhuan" and "Yuanzai".
Although giant pandas are worth a lot of money, with an annual rental fee of up to 800,000 euros, plus the cost of eating bamboo of 60,000 euros a year, as a "signature", giant pandas have made a huge contribution to the turnover of Beauval Zoo. It is reported that before the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the annual turnover of Beauval Zoo was as high as 64 million euros.