China assails France's Sarkozy for meeting with Dalai Lama
source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china8-2008dec08,0,3293006.story?track=rss
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Reporting from Beijing -- The Chinese government let loose Sunday with an official protest and a torrent of angry editorials denouncing French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a meeting over the weekend with the Dalai Lama.
Beijing is always prickly about world leaders meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, but the outpouring against France was exceptional. It comes during a year in which anti-French sentiments have been running high since April when pro-Tibetan protesters tried to wrestle away the Olympic torch during the relay through Paris.
China had warned Sarkozy for weeks against meeting with the Dalai Lama and withdrew from a planned summit with the European Union in anticipation. Sarkozy, who this year also holds the rotating EU presidency, met with the Tibetan for 30 minutes Saturday at a conference of Nobel laureates in Gdansk, Poland.
"This grossly interfered in China's internal affairs," Deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei told the ambassador, according to the state-run New China News Agency. He also said the meeting "gravely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people."
Jean-Vincent Brisset, a Chinese specialist at France's Institute for International and Strategic Relations, suggests that the French brought it on themselves by revealing that they were vulnerable to pressure.
Sarkozy hesitated for months about whether to attend the opening ceremony Aug. 8 of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, saying at first he wouldn't attend unless Beijing improved its human rights record, then at the end showing up for the ceremony. Sarkozy also declined to meet the Dalai Lama when he was in France in late August, instead sending his wife, Carla Bruni, and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
"We made a show of weakness, and so the Chinese found us a soft target," Brisset said. He believes that China's protests against Sarkozy are a way of testing the European Union but says the Chinese won't push too hard because of the economic turmoil in the United States.
Anti-French sentiment ran high in China over the summer with demonstrations outside French stores, especially the Carrefour chain, and many Chinese tour groups canceled trips to France.
Beijing is always prickly about world leaders meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, but the outpouring against France was exceptional. It comes during a year in which anti-French sentiments have been running high since April when pro-Tibetan protesters tried to wrestle away the Olympic torch during the relay through Paris.
China had warned Sarkozy for weeks against meeting with the Dalai Lama and withdrew from a planned summit with the European Union in anticipation. Sarkozy, who this year also holds the rotating EU presidency, met with the Tibetan for 30 minutes Saturday at a conference of Nobel laureates in Gdansk, Poland.
"This grossly interfered in China's internal affairs," Deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei told the ambassador, according to the state-run New China News Agency. He also said the meeting "gravely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people."
Jean-Vincent Brisset, a Chinese specialist at France's Institute for International and Strategic Relations, suggests that the French brought it on themselves by revealing that they were vulnerable to pressure.
Sarkozy hesitated for months about whether to attend the opening ceremony Aug. 8 of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, saying at first he wouldn't attend unless Beijing improved its human rights record, then at the end showing up for the ceremony. Sarkozy also declined to meet the Dalai Lama when he was in France in late August, instead sending his wife, Carla Bruni, and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
"We made a show of weakness, and so the Chinese found us a soft target," Brisset said. He believes that China's protests against Sarkozy are a way of testing the European Union but says the Chinese won't push too hard because of the economic turmoil in the United States.
Anti-French sentiment ran high in China over the summer with demonstrations outside French stores, especially the Carrefour chain, and many Chinese tour groups canceled trips to France.
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- tags:
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