ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />STORY: China's President Xi Jinping was welcomed in Paris on Wednesday with military honors as France seeks tighter business links to the world's number-two economy.<br/> <br />Xi arrived in Paris from Lyon on the second day of a three-day tour, with him attending a military ceremony with French President Francois Hollande at the Invalides courtyard where Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is buried.<br/> <br />Xi's visit marks 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Recognition of the People's Republic of China by France in 1964 - in the face of anti-Communist hostility elsewhere in the west - forms part of France's claim to a special relationship.<br/> <br />Nevertheless, France trails far behind Germany on the trade front, accounting for just 1.2 percent of Chinese imports compared with 4.8 percent.
