June 18, 1989, Prime Minister Michel Rocard in the French National Assembly announced the freezing of relations with China at all levels. The next day, the French foreign minister spoke in the parliament and pointed out that the “freezing” applied to all aspects of military cooperation and the entire political relationship. Sino-French relations began to regress.

September 27, 1991, the French government announced its would sell Taiwan six “Lafayette” frigates with a total value of $2 billion. France also sold technology to allow Taiwan to build another 10. On Sept 28, the Chinese government made ​​vigorous protests and demanded France comply with the principles and norms of international relations: not to sell arms to Taiwan, not to establish any official relations with Taiwan. The sale of the frigates incident caused serious damage to bilateral relations.

Nov 18, 1992, France's Dassault and other companies agreed to sell Taiwan 60 "Mirage 2000-5" fighters, with the total value of $ 3.8 billion. After repeated warnings by the Chinese government, the French government insisted that the arms sales contract was valid.

Dec 23, 1992, theChinese Foreign Ministry demanded that France close its Consulate General in Guangzhou within a month. Sino-French political relations and economic relations suffered a major blow and entered a difficult period.

Jan 12, 1994, China and France issued a joint communiqué. Both sides agreed that the two countries should restore traditional friendly and cooperative relations on the base of diplomatic principles. France confirmed that the government of the PRC is the sole legitimate government of China and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory. The French government promised not to allow French companies in the future to provide arms to Taiwan. China and France showed their willingness to strengthen political consultation, hold regular meetings and develop economic and trade cooperation. The publication of the communiqué marked that the difficult period was over.

Feb 22-26, 1994, the French President of the Senate, Rene Monory, visited China. He came to conduct a dialogue with China, to strengthen mutual understanding, and also to create a good atmosphere for the visit of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. The visit proved that bilateral relations had embarked on the normal track.

April 7-10, 1994, Prime Minister Edouard Balladur visited China. The two sides discussed the possibility of cooperation on important projects, and agreed that the two sides will maintain the momentum of high-level visits, strengthen political consultations and confirmed regular meetings and consultations between the two foreign ministers.

Sept 8-14, 1994, President Jiang Zemin paid a state visit to France. The visit coincided with the 35th anniversary of establishment of Sino-French diplomatic relations and was a very meaningful visit. During his visit to France, President Jiang Zemin met with French President Francois Mitterrand, Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, and French President of Senate Monory. The two sides signed 19 economic and trade cooperation contracts, agreements and letters of intent worth a total 18.1 billion francs . In addition, China also provided a list of items available for France to participate in competitive bidding for the major projects in China.

President Jiang Zemin and French President Mitterrand exchanged gifts at Hôtel de Marigny on Sept 9, 1984.