French President Emmanuel Macron should privately and publicly stress the importance of human rights in Sino-French relations during his visit to China from December 3 to 5, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. Macron’s visit is one of several top-level engagements between European and Chinese leaders amid the complex and shifting geopolitical relationships among Europe, China, and the United States.

President Macron should signal his commitment to taking concrete action in response to deepening repression by China. Key issues include

• labor rights abuses in China’s supply chains;
• commercial drones produced by China-based companies being used by Russia to attack civilians in Ukraine;
• and China’s use of transnational repression to target critics abroad, including in France.

“China’s disregard for human rights has important implications for France, from weapons used in unlawful Russian attacks in Ukraine to abusive supply chains that hinders fair competition for European industries,” said Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch. “Macron should break the silos between human rights and other issues and show leadership by including rights concerns in high-level policy discussions with China.”

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