Fresh off a state visit to China, French President Emmanuel Macron returned home and immediately warned that the European Union may follow Washington’s lead and hit Beijing with sanctions if Beijing fails to address “widening trade imbalances.”

Macron warned that the European Union may be forced to take “strong measures” and added the issue is a "question of life or death for European industry." He also emphasized the need for Europe to become more competitive and for the European Central Bank to take growth and jobs into account in its monetary policy.

“I’m trying to explain to the Chinese that their trade surplus isn’t sustainable because they’re killing their own clients, notably by importing hardly anything from us any more,” Macron told Les Echos newspaper in an interview on December 7.

“If they don’t react, in the coming months we Europeans will be obliged to take strong measures and decouple, like the US, like for example tariffs on Chinese products,” he said, adding that he had discussed the matter with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Bloomberg reports.

China is France’s third biggest trade partner, but imports three times more goods from China than it exports. It has built up a €47bn goods trade deficit that is swelling over time as European products become less competitive against China’s growing industrial momentum. China’s goods trade surplus with the EU swelled to almost $143bn in the first half of 2025, a record for any six-month period.

Last year the Draghi report warned that Europe has lost its competitive edge and needs to invest €800bn a year to just stay in the game. However, the increasingly cash-strapped Europe is struggling to just meet the €800bn of investment over four years needed to modernise its military and another €100bn a year to fund the war in Ukraine. Little money has been invested into innovation so far . The European Commission (EC) has instead focused on cutting red tape and rolling back some of the more arduous Green Deal rules.

Analysts were scathing about the announcement, arguing that Macron should have made the threat while still in Beijing, after Chinese President Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet for Macron in an unprecedented show of hospitality. The two men travelled together to Chengdu for a touristic outing in the three-day visit.

“The guy just spent 3 days in China and was given nearly unprecedented access to Xi Jinping who personally accompanied him to Chengdu on a touristic visit, something that almost never happens. To my knowledge, no US president was ever given this level of respect for instance,” political commentator Arnaud Bertrand said. “What does he do the very moment he arrives back in France, literally the day after? Threaten China to follow the US with similar style tariffs.”

Bertrand argued that if Macron has grievances, he should have signalled them in advance and negotiated face-to-face during his visit to cut a deal.

“Macron inexplicably chose to do it backwards: accepting three days of unprecedented personal attention from Xi before returning home to threaten the very host who had just rolled out the red carpet for him, rendering the whole visit essentially worthless. That's not diplomacy: it's burning goodwill for nothing,” Bertrand said.

Macron’s visit comes in contrast to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s overlapping state visit to India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who also rolled out the red carpet for the Russian leader. That trip was conspicuously more successful, with Moscow and New Delhi signing off on billions of dollars-worth of energy, raw material and weapons deals, as their relationship deepens.

"I am trying to explain to the Chinese that their trade surplus is untenable and that they are killing their own customers, mainly by not importing much from us," the French leader said.

Macron is hoping to undo the imbalance by encouraging more investment by French companies in China and took a planeload of top level businessmen with him on the trip.

Like trade, the investment balance is heavily skewed towards China: Europe's €232bn total investment stock in China is far in excess of China's €65bn in Europe, according to data for 2023, Politico reports.

"We recognize that they are very good in some areas. But we can't be constantly importing," Macron said. "Chinese businesses have to come to Europe, just like EDF and Airbus previously went to China, and create value and opportunities for Europe,” Macron said, adding that the investments must not be “predatory” and seek to add value.