European industry is facing a “life or death” moment, says French President Emmanuel Macron, squeezed between an ultra-competitive China and a protectionist America — and Beijing should ride to its rescue with long overdue foreign investment.

“The Chinese have to do in Europe what the Europeans did 25 years ago by investing in China,” Macron told the Les Echos financial newspaper upon returning from his fourth official trip to Beijing since 2018.

The continent’s trade deficit with China was €306 billion in 2024, on some €213 billion in exports against €519 billion in imports.

“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.

A similar imbalance exists between Europe’s €232 billion investment stock in China — the total value of accumulated portfolio investments and FDI — and China’s €65 billion in Europe, according to data for 2023.

“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.”

He added, however, that “Chinese investments in Europe must not be predatory, by which I mean in pursuit of hegemony and creating dependencies.”

France takes up the 2026 presidency of the G7 group of major advanced economies on Jan. 1 and will host the G7 summit in Evian, France, in June. Bloomberg reported last month that Macron is considering inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to the summit and intends to use its presidency to restore the G7 to its former global standing.

Macron warned in the Les Echos interview that Europe might be forced to slap customs duties on Chinese imports, as the U.S. has done under Donald Trump, and accused Beijing of “hitting the heart of Europe’s innovation and industrial model.”

But rather than more confrontation, the French president proposed a truce with Beijing — “the mutual dismantling of our aggressive policies, such as restrictions on the export of semiconductor machines on the European side and limitations on the export of rare earths on the Chinese side.”