Apart from the fact that he is several coat sizes smaller than Jacques Chirac, what differences are there between Nicolas Sarkozy and his predecessor as French president? When it comes to China policy, not many, it would appear.

Watching Sarkozy’s swing through Xian, Beijing and Shanghai this week, I cannot have been the only European in China wondering if this wasn’t a rather splendid example of Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

The deal to sell 160 Airbus aircraft to the Chinese that was secured during Sarkozy’s visit was remarkably similar to the deal to sell 150 Airbuses that Chirac secured on his last official trip to China in October 2006.

Sarkozy’s decision not to take his human rights minister to China, and his public silence on the lashing that German chancellor Angela Merkel received from China for having met the Dalai Lama, were très chiraquien.

In Shanghai, Sarkozy even took fire at the US and Japan, saying in a speech to the city’s French community that the US should reduce its deficits and the Japanese should pay more attention to the value of the yen.

In fairness, Sarkozy had already asked the Chinese to let the renminbi rise in value. And no one can say Sarkozy wasn’t, in his own way, putting a certain kind of pressure on China. According to the China Daily newspaper, when he accepted President Hu Jintao’s invitation to attend the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Sarkozy joked: “I will attend the opening ceremony, but please reserve a nice seat for me.” 

It would be pointless to make a big deal out of all this, because Sarkozy was doing was what every European national leader does when he or she visits China – they put their own country first.

It must be something in the green tea, but European politicians seem to go light in the head when they arrive in China and come face to face with the country’s daunting size (the Beijing area alone is more than half as big as Belgium) and its breathtaking business opportunities.

The Chinese know this, of course. They can hardly be blamed for thinking the easiest thing to do when hosting a European leader is to speak a few polite but empty words on the exchange rate, praise the leader’s knowledge of China, and throw him a few billion euros’ worth of business deals before ushering him out of the door.

But in Sarkozy’s case, the deals amounted to a hefty €20bn. Chapeau! Enjoy the Olympics!