In Mandarin, Emmanuel Macron's name is rendered "Makelong", or "the horse vanquishes the dragon" -- an encouraging image for the French president as he headed to China yesterday hoping to forge closer ties with President Xi Jinping.

During the three-day trip which begins today, Macron plans to seek a "strategic partnership" with Beijing, notably on terrorism and climate change, an official in the president's office said.

In particular, France is hoping Beijing will join it in playing a decisive role in implementing the Paris accord to fight climate change after the US pullout pledged by President Donald Trump.

Although China is the world's biggest polluter, it is also the biggest investor in clean energy technologies.

Macron also said this week that China had a key leadership role to play in easing the crisis provoked by North Korea's nuclear programme, following Trump's escalating war of words with Kim Jong-Un.

"The ambition of the Chinese leadership is to persuade the French president to position himself on issues like North Korea as a 'go-between', defending 'dialogue' against the more aggressive posture of the United States, and to implicitly recognise by his choices the pre-eminence of China in the region," analyst Valerie Niquet said.