France’s finance ministry is also organising an economic forum on Thursday that will gather together about 400 businesses.
“Our economic and trade relationship with China is marked by a strong imbalance,” the French foreign ministry said, pointing to a trade deficit of 25.8 billion euros ($35.7 billion) last year between the two countries.
At the end of 2012, France’s total investments in China came to 16.7 billion euros, four times more than China’s in France.
The trip is also due to touch on political matters as the crisis in Ukraine dominates the international agenda.
– Tibet protest planned –
The trip also carries a symbolic note, with Xi scheduled to make a major speech in Paris highlighting historical bonds such as the experiences of Communist Party luminaries Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, who both studied in France.
Xi’s wife Peng, a famous singer and China’s first prominent First Lady, is also a Francophile.
And while she no longer has a French counterpart after Hollande split from his partner Valerie Trierweiler, Peng has her own itinerary planned that will see her named special UNESCO envoy for the promotion of women’s education.
The question of human rights in China will impact on the visit amid an ongoing, government-backed crackdown on dissent, with Tibetan exiles planning a big rally in Paris on Thursday.
Since 2009 about 120 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in China in protests against the authorities, denouncing what they say is an erosion of their religious freedoms and culture and discrimination by the country’s Han majority.
