Sarkozy tries to placate China as France is hit by protest backlash

President Nicolas Sarkozy sought yesterday to calm Chinese anger against France, which has been made – with or without the help of the Beijing authorities – the whipping boy for the West's attempts to defend human rights in Tibet.

After a series of demonstrations in Chinese cities in which young men burnt French flags and insulted French "heroes" from Jeanne d'Arc to Napoleon, President Sarkozy took a series of actions to demonstrate French goodwill towards the Chinese people.

However, Paris also warned that it would stand by its "principles" and President Sarkozy expected to see a "dialogue" between Beijing and the Dalai Lama before the opening of the Olympics in August.

France has become the principal target for Chinese popular fury against Western attitudes to Tibet since human rights demonstrators made a fiasco of the Olympic torch relay through Paris two weeks ago. There were flag-burning demonstrations outside French-owned Carrefour supermarkets in eight Chinese cities at the weekend.

At Wuhan, in central China, two men waved a French tricolour daubed with swastikas and insults in French and English such as "Jeanne d'Arc = prostitute", "Napoléon = pervert" and "Free Corsica". It was noticeable that the protesters had gone to the trouble to get their French spellings correct, down to the last accent.

Chinese anger against France, though partly spontaneous, has been carefully whipped up by the official media. A handicapped Chinese athlete, Jin Jing, 27, who fought off a pro-Tibetan demonstrator in Paris while carrying the Olympic torch in her wheelchair, has become the subject of hero-worshipping articles and television programmes.

President Sarkozy sent a letter to Jin Jing yesterday praising her "outstanding courage" and expressing his "deep emotion" about the way that she had been "pushed around" in Paris. He also invited the young fencer to make another trip to Paris and to visit him at the Elysée Palace (a case of Jin Jing meets Bling-Bling?).

France will have three senior envoys in China this week. Christian Poncelet, the president of the French Senate, delivered M. Sarkozy's letter to Jin Jing in Shanghai yesterday, while on a five-day visit. He will be followed by the former prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and by M. Sarkozy's diplomatic adviser, Jean-David Levitte.

All will carry the message spelt out by the French Foreign Ministry yesterday: that France has always defended the principle of China's "territorial integrity" (i.e no support for Tibetan independence) but M. Sarkozy will decide whether to attend the Olympic opening ceremony only when Beijing responds to his appeals for a "dialogue" between China and the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader.

China has conspicuously singled out France for more blame than other countries which gave the Olympic torch a bad time, such as Britain. That seems partly to have been motivated by anger at the mixed messages generated by Paris in recent weeks. France's Human Rights minister, Rama Yade, was quoted as laying down a series of "conditions" for M. Sarkozy's attendance at the Olympic ceremony, including "autonomy" for Tibet. Mme Yade and other ministers later repudiated these remarks.

Calls in Chinese internet chatrooms for a boycott of French goods and contracts have had little impact so far, according to French businessmen in China. They are concerned, however, that the anti-French feeling could spin out of control.

Interesting? Click here to explore further