China's President Hu Jintao has signed billions of euros' worth of business deals during a state visit to France.
They included spending 10bn euros (£8.6bn; $14bn) on 102 Airbus planes, as well as telecoms and nuclear deals.
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy received his guest with full military honours, and has laid on an extravagant programme of events and ceremonies.
But activists complain that China's human rights record is being ignored in the rush to sign lucrative contracts.
Unusually for a three-day state visit, there will not be a joint press conference between the presidents, so there will be no opportunity for Western journalists to question Mr Hu on issues like Tibet, press freedom and the imprisonment of dissidents.
Business deals are the firm focus of the trip.
On Thursday evening, deputy Chinese Foreign Minister Fu Ying said investment contracts signed that day had already totalled 14bn euros, and said China planned to double the value of its annual imports from France to 56bn euros over the next five years.
The deals apparently included a 2.5bn-euro agreement with French nuclear giant Areva to supply uranium, and another to build a uranium treatment plant in China.
Also, Total said it was planning to invest 2-3bn euros in a Chinese petrochemical plant.
BBC News
