France’s leader offers gelding from cavalry corps as gift

An adept of soft diplomacy and symbols, French President Emmanuel Macron picked an 8-year-old brown gelding named Vesuvius from the presidential cavalry corps and braved stringent Chinese quarantine checks to offer it to President Xi Jinping.

The choice of the gift, an “unprecedented diplomatic gesture” according to the French presidency, was made after the Chinese president expressed his fascination for the 104 horsemen who escorted him during his last visit to Paris in 2014.

It is the first time France has offered one of the elite cavalry corps’ horses and is also a response to China’s “panda diplomacy” after Macron’s wife, Brigitte, became the godmother of a Chinese panda lent by Beijing to a zoo near Paris.

“It mattered a lot for the president, even if it was very complicated to import a horse for sanitary reasons. It’s a symbol of French excellence,” an Elysee Palace official said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang called the effort made by the French a “friendly move”, and expressed China’s gratitude and appreciation in a daily news briefing on Monday.