Jacques Chirac’s three day trip to China will afford the former President the chance to return to a country he holds dear and to maintain Franco-Chinese relations. He will meet the President of the Republic, Hu Jintao, with whom he will dine on April 28.

They will discuss, amongst other issues, the problem of criminal networks putting counterfeit drugs and food substitutes onto the market.
Furthermore, Jacques Chirac, will meet with the former President of the Popular Republic of China, Jiang Zemin and the State Councillor of State in charge of Foreign Affairs, Dai Bingguo (whom he met last year in Paris).
The former French President hopes to convince them to support, alongside African leaders, the organisation of a world conference on access to high quality medicine. The conference will be organised at the initiative of the Fondation Chirac.

On Wednesday April 29, Jacques Chirac will make a speech at the Beijing Diplomatic Institute where he will be awarded a Honoris Causa Doctorate.
He will restate that in these times of financial crisis, a link must be established between principles of access to natural resources, the respect of cultural diversity, and conflict prevention. He will underline that if changes of this nature are not undertaken rapidly, the current global crisis will inevitably worsen. “Environmental refugees” have already started to migrate and new conflicts are threatening on the horizon: conflicts for access to water, for fertile lands, for natural resources…. Jacques Chirac has called on China, as well as all the governments worldwide, to work collectively in order to save the Millennium Goals and avoid other disasters that the current crisis may still wreak.