By John Irish
PARIS (Reuters) – France on Tuesday called on the Chinese ambassador to underline the unacceptable nature of insults and threats against French lawmakers and a researcher, and Beijing’s decision to sanction some European officials, a French source said. Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, was summoned by the Foreign Ministry in April last year over reports and tweets from the embassy defending Beijing’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and criticizing the West’s handling of it.
The Chinese embassy warned last week that French lawmakers would meet with officials during an upcoming visit to self-governing Taiwan, which has drawn a refusal from France.
Since then, it has been in a conversation on Twitter with Antoine Bondaz, an expert on China from the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, in which the embassy described him as a ‘childhood thug’ and ‘crazy hyena’.
“It remains unacceptable and has exceeded limits for a foreign embassy,” the French official said after Lu was received by the head of the foreign ministry in Asia.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Lu’s behavior created an obstacle to improving relations between China and France.
The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada on Monday imposed sanctions on Chinese officials over human rights violations in Xinjiang, in the first such coordinated Western operation against Beijing under new US President Joe Biden.
In retaliation, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved several European citizens, including the French Member of the European Parliament, Raphaël Glucksmann.
The envoy was told that France did not approve the decision, the French official said, adding that Lu was “visibly shocked by the extremely direct character of what he was told” and tried to change the conversation to discuss Taiwan.
(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Catherine Evans)