European plane maker Airbus and French engineering and utility firms landed
deals worth more than $10 billion in Beijing on Thursday as China rolled out the
red carpet for President Jacques Chirac.
The deals -- dominated by a record-matching order for 150 single-aisle Airbus
jets worth $9.9 billion at list prices -- came at the formal start of a state
visit to a country whose rapid growth he said would "change the face of the
world."
Chirac was welcomed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and a 21-gun military
salute at Tiananmen Square.
The two leaders reviewed a column of troops at the square, festooned with red
flags of China and a single French flag, before talks in the cavernous Great
Hall of the People.
Chirac's vocal support for an end to the ban earned him tributes in China's
official press at the start of his fourth trip as president, which caps a decade
of improving ties.
"Europe's arms embargo to China is not in line with current Sino-European
relations, and France will continue to push the European Union to lift the ban
soon," China's foreign ministry spokesman quoted Chirac as saying in talks with
his counterpart.
The talks also focused on the North Korean weapons crisis, with a joint
declaration expressing "serious concern" over Pyongyang's October 9 nuclear
test, and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"Doing nothing would strip us of any influence, credibility or legitimacy,"
Chirac told students at Beijing University.
The two countries said in a joint statement they were committed to the
respect of universal human rights "whilst taking into account specific
situations".
Chirac, whose term in office ends next May, was due to meet Premier Wen
Jiabao and other top officials later in the day.
AIRBUS-BOEING RACE
Looking relaxed and basking in his status as one of China's strongest Western
allies, Chirac handled questions from university students over France's
traditional rivalry with the United States and the future of Europe.
He wished Beijing "extraordinary success" for the 2008 Olympics, in a
poignant reminder that he failed to clinch the 2012 games which will be staged
in London.
In a package of economic and other accords, Airbus agreed to sell 150 of its
narrow-bodied A320 jets to China and reached a final deal to make some of the
jets in the country.
China, which often maintains a balance between rivals Airbus and Boeing,
bought 150 Boeing jets during a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush in
November 2005, and another 150 from Airbus during Wen's visit to France a month
later.
Airbus, however, hopes to steal a march on its rival on the fast-growing
Chinese market by investing in local assembly, even as it faces restructuring at
home due to A380 superjumbo delays.
The project calls for Airbus to build its first non-European assembly plant
in Tianjin, near Beijing, in order to boost capacity for A320-family narrow-body
jets starting from 2009.
"With a big country like China, if you want to be present (commercially), you
also need to be present industrially," Airbus chief executive Louis Gallois told
reporters.
China also took out options for 20 A350 jets, lending its support to a future
mid-sized model that returned to the drawing board this year when airlines
preferred Boeing's alternative.
Aside from the Airbus order, the official signing ceremony featured no truly
astonishing deals and little progress was reported on French efforts to sell
new-generation nuclear power stations to China in competition with U.S.
Westinghouse.
French engineering firm Alstom signed a deal from which it will net 300
million euros to supply 500 locomotives as China overhauls its railways, and
power giant EDF agreed to help develop nuclear power plants using existing
technology.
In Paris, utility Suez announced a one billion euro 30-year water services
deal in the city of Changshu.
