“…China and France sought Wednesday to cool tempers over Tibet and the Olympics, with a former French premier heading here for top-level talks criticising a decision to honour the Dalai Lama…”

Source: AFP

China and France sought Wednesday to cool tempers over Tibet and the Olympics, with a former French premier heading here for top-level talks criticising a decision to honour the Dalai Lama.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who arrives Thursday bearing a message from President Nicolas Sarkozy, said Paris city council had contradicted official policy by conferring honorary citizenship on the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Raffarin is one of three senior French figures visiting Beijing this week, all carrying letters from Sarkozy as the president tries to repair relations damaged by pro-Tibet protests in France and hurt pride in China.

At the same time, the Chinese commerce ministry warned against an ongoing boycott of French supermarket giant Carrefour, noting that it employs 40,000 workers here and that up to 95 percent of its products are made in China.

Carrefour has been the focus of Chinese angered by what they see as biased coverage of China’s crackdown in Tibet, chaotic protests that marred the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay, and hints Sarkozy could boycott the opening ceremony of the Games in August.

Raffarin characterised the honour by Paris city council as “a very serious political mistake,” according to an interview published Wednesday in the China Youth Daily.

“While President Sarkozy makes efforts to improve France-China relations, the Paris administration is running in the opposite direction to the French government. This is very bad,” he was quoted as saying.

The Paris honour has incensed Beijing, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman saying it would have a “severely negative impact”.

Raffarin was quoted in the interview, published in Chinese, as saying there were “no strategic differences or confrontation between France and China” and the tensions were caused by a “clash of emotions.”

He is due Thursday to meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, and is expected to pass on Sarkozy’s letter at a separate meeting with President Hu Jintao.

Raffarin told France’s Le Parisien newspaper he was bringing a biography of French war hero and former president Charles de Gaulle as a gift for Hu from Sarkozy.

French Senate leader Christian Poncelet is already in China, and on Monday delivered a message from Sarkozy to a wheelchair-bound Chinese athlete who was jostled by pro-Tibet protesters at the April 7 Paris torch relay.

France’s ambassador to Beijing, Herve Ladsous, was quoted in the official Global Times as saying that what happened to the Olympic flame in Paris — it had to be doused several times by officials — was “very regrettable.”

Sarkozy’s diplomatic advisor Jean-David Levitte is also due in China this weekend.

The French president angered China earlier this month when he said dialogue between Beijing and the Dalai Lama would ensure the Olympic Games could occur “in a calm manner.”

But Raffarin was quoted Wednesday as saying China’s preconditions for such dialogue were “completely reasonable.”

China accuses the religious leader of striving for Tibetan independence and seeking to hamper the Olympics by fomenting unrest, and says he must stop all such activities before any dialogue can happen.

However, talks have not been forthcoming despite the Dalai Lama’s repeated statements that Tibet is a part of China and that he supports the Games.

Protests against Chinese rule over Tibet erupted last month in the capital Lhasa, spreading to other areas of China with Tibetan populations.

China says Tibetan “rioters” killed 18 civilians and two police officers, while exiled Tibetan leaders have said more than 150 people have died in the subsequent government crackdown.

Coinciding with the French missions, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso is set to meet China’s top leaders here Friday, EU officials said. A Commission spokesman said Tibet would be on that agenda.