Can you still send strong messages when you've rolled out the red carpet and chilled the champagne for a state dinner? China's Xi Jinping is being feted in the French capital for his first visit to Europe since 2019, despite trade tensions, spy scandals and insistence that he isolate Vladimir Putin over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. How much has changed since one year ago, when Emmanuel Macron was accused of lax messaging on human rights and Taiwan when he travelled to Beijing?

The last time that Macron hosted Xi, he invited then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel to join the talks alongside the European Commission president. This time, Ursula von der Leyen is in Paris, but not Olaf Scholz. We ask why and whether that strengthens or weakens the bargaining position of France and the EU.

There are also the messages that Xi wants to convey, particularly with his itinerary: after France, the Chinese president travels to Hungary, whose lenient stance towards Beijing is being rewarded with an electric vehicle factory; and Serbia, for the 25th anniversary of NATO's mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the war in Kosovo. Is it all part of the hard bargaining or a signal that China is ready to take on all comers?

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.