This week, for the first time in five years, President Xi Jinping of China is visiting Europe, with stops in France, Serbia and Hungary.

本週，中國國家主席習近平五年來首次訪問歐洲，將途經法國、塞爾維亞和匈牙利三國。

Mr. Xi’s trip comes at a time of tensions with many European countries over China’s support for Russia in the face of its war in Ukraine, its trade practices and its apparent espionage activities. The trip will also test Europe’s delicate balancing act between China and the United States.

習近平此次出訪正值中國與許多歐洲國家關係緊張之際，原因包括中國在烏克蘭戰爭中對俄羅斯的支持，中國的貿易行為和明目張膽的間諜活動。此次出訪還將考驗歐洲在中美之間的微妙平衡。

Mr. Xi hopes to head off a trade war with the European Union as frictions rise over exports of Chinese electric vehicles and diminished market access for European companies in China. Mr. Xi will also encourage President Emmanuel Macron of France to pursue greater autonomy from the United States in a bid to weaken Washington’s global dominance.

習近平希望避免與歐盟發生貿易戰，目前雙方已經因為中國電動汽車的出口以及歐洲公司的中國市場准入縮減而產生摩擦。習近平還將鼓勵法國總統馬克宏尋求更大的獨立性，以削弱華盛頓的全球主導地位。

Here is what we know about Mr. Xi’s trip, which began Sunday.

以下是我們對習近平自週日開始的訪歐之旅的了解。

The three countries Mr. Xi will be visiting, experts say, to varying degrees embrace China’s push for a redefined global order. All have to some extent questioned America’s postwar ordering of the world, and are eager to bolster ties with Beijing.

Hungary has close ties to China and is keen to attract Chinese investments in areas like electric car and battery manufacturing as Chinese producers expand beyond Asia. Serbia, too, has warm relations with Beijing and has secured billions of dollars in Chinese investment.

Mr. Xi’s first stop is France, where Mr. Macron recently said that Europe “must never be a vassal of the United States,” and has cast France as a bridge between the “Global South” and Western powers.

在習近平的第一站法國，馬克宏最近曾表示，歐洲「絕不能成為美國的附庸」，並將法國稱為「全球南方」與西方大國之間的橋樑。

Despite his courting of Beijing, Mr. Macron has said he is still closer to its ally, the United States, than to China.

儘管向北京示好，但馬克宏表示，他與盟友美國的關係仍比與中國的關係更密切。

“I prefer to choose my relationship with the United States, with China, rather than have it imposed on me by one of the two parties, either pushing me in one direction or pulling me in the other,” he said in an interview with The Economist magazine. But, he added: “Very clearly, we are not equidistant. We are allies of the Americans.”

「我希望由我來決定與我與美國、中國的關係，而不是讓這兩國中的任何一方將我推向一邊或拉向另一邊，」他在接受《經濟學人》雜誌採訪時表示。但他補充說：「很明顯，我們並不是等距離的。我們是美國人的盟友。」

Before Mr. Xi’s visit, Chinese diplomats expressed hopes that ties between France and China would be at the forefront of China’s relations with the West.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive branch, joined talks on Monday with Mr. Xi and Mr. Macron in Paris.

This year is also a symbolic one for China and the three countries.

對於中國和這三個國家來說，今年也是具有象徵意義的一年。

It is the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France and the 75th of those with Hungary.

今年是中法建交60週年，也是中匈建交75週年。

This year is also the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, during the Kosovo war, which killed three Chinese journalists and set off angry protests at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Chinese authorities have continued to point to the bombing as a sign of NATO aggression and an example of why Russia was justified in feeling threatened before it decided to invade Ukraine.

今年還是科索沃戰爭期間北約轟炸中國駐塞爾維亞貝爾格勒大使館25週年，該事件造成三名中國記者死亡，並引發在美國駐北京大使館外的憤怒抗議。中國政府至今仍將該事件作為北約侵犯的標誌，從中也可以證明俄羅斯在入侵烏克蘭之前感受到的威脅是合理的。

Mr. Xi’s last European visit was in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, which he spent hunkered down in China, leaving the country’s borders for the first time in the fall of 2022.

習近平最後一次訪問歐洲是在新冠大流行之前的2019年，新冠期間他一直待在中國閉門不出，直到2022年秋才首次前往中國邊境之外的地方。

The 2019 trip included a flashy ceremony in Rome to celebrate Italy’s participation in China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure project, which is aimed at expanding China’s influence abroad. France rolled out the red carpet for Mr. Xi in Paris and signed more than a dozen commercial and governmental treaties worth billions of euros, even as Mr. Macron warned that “China plays on our divisions” and that “the period of European naïveté is over.”

2019年的訪問包括在羅馬的一場盛大的儀式，慶祝義大利參與中國的「一帶一路」全球基礎設施項目，該項目旨在擴大中國的海外影響力。法國在巴黎為習近平鋪上了紅毯，並簽署了十多項價值數十億歐元的商業和政府條約，儘管馬克宏當時曾警告，「中國利用了我們的分歧，」並表示「歐洲已經不再天真。」

Mr. Xi also visited Greece, where he pledged his support to the country in its struggle with Britain to obtain the Parthenon sculptures known as the Elgin Marbles.

習近平當時訪問了希臘，並承諾支持該國向英國追討被稱為「額爾金石雕」的帕台農神廟���塑。

Since Mr. Xi’s last visit, there has been a widening rift in the relationship between China and much of Europe. The coronavirus pandemic, Beijing’s embrace of Russia and its repression of ethnic minorities, and a surge in Chinese exports have generated backlashes against China in many European countries.

自習近平上次訪問以來，中國與歐洲大部分地區的關係裂痕不斷擴大。新冠大流行、北京拉近與俄羅斯的關係以及打壓少數民族，加之中國出口的激增，都在許多歐洲國家引起了對中國的強烈反應。

China has quintupled car shipments to foreign markets in recent years, and the European Union has recently adopted a more confrontational tone over China’s trade practices. E.U. authorities have opened an investigation that could result in limits on Chinese solar exports, and have taken preliminary steps toward restricting trade with Chinese goods that include electric cars, wind turbines and medical devices.

Italy has also told China that it would no longer participate in its Belt and Road Initiative, and last month, six people in Europe were charged with spying for China in the span of a week, in a sign that European countries are stepping up their response to Chinese espionage.

義大利還告訴中國，自己將退出「一帶一路」倡議，上個月，一週內有六人在歐洲被指控為中國從事間諜活動，這表明歐洲國家正在加緊對中國間諜活動的應對。

At the same time, European nations vary in their views on how to engage with Beijing and benefit from economic opportunities there, and some are fearful of any imposition of European tariffs.

與此同時，歐洲國家對於如何與北京接觸並從中國經濟機會中受益存在不同看法，有些國家擔心歐洲會加徵關稅。

Mr. Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany also think that China’s leverage will be critical in bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.

馬克宏和德國總理肖爾茨還認為，中國的影響力對於結束烏克蘭戰爭至關重要。