China's President,

President Xi Jing Ping visits Europe for the first time in five years.

Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service.

I'm Felicity Hanna in forolliana Byrne. Good morning. Yes, the Chinese Premier

Chiching Ping is now in Paris for talks with the French President Emmanuel Macron.

Later in the trip he'll visit Hungary and Serbia. Europe of course is China's

second largest trading partner after the United States, so there's plenty to talk about.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield is in Paris.

Hi Hugh.

What's the purpose of a meeting like this and how significant is it?

Well, I mean, it's always significant in these unstable times when the leader of one big block, one of the

most powerful men in the world's using being comes to the leader of a leader in another big

block, the EU.

I don't think anyone has huge expectations that anything

dramatically will be turned round here but the issues are clear. They're the

trade imbalance between the EU and China the allegations of dumping in both

directions, mac's increasing assertiveness as a

European leader against China, accusing China of protectivism and saying it's time that

we and Europe grew up and started being protectionist ourselves in essence. and then Ukraine as well, and then Ukraine as well, Macron,

I think without great hope, saying that he wants to get the Chinese on board,

put pressure on Russia to tone down or stop their invasion and their war in Ukraine.

And of course it's not just the French leader, it's also the European Commission President

...