France summons Beijing envoy in latest EU-China spat

France has summoned Lu Shaye – the Chinese ambassador to Paris seen as one of Xi Jinping's aggressive "wolf warrior" diplomats – to protest against "insults and threats" against French members of parliament and a researcher who defended the MPs' right to go to Taiwan on a fact-finding mission.

“The statements by the Chinese embassy in France and the actions taken against elected representatives, researchers and European diplomats are unacceptable,” foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian wrote on Twitter.

Reacting to the embassy's portrayal of Antoine Bondaz, a China expert at France's Foundation for Strategic Research, as a "small-time bully", "ideological troll" and one of a pack of "mad hyenas", the French foreign ministry issued a statement condemning "insults against independent researchers and the polemic against French elected officials" and defending academic freedoms.

Clément Beaune, France's Europe minister, said such threats and intimidation from China could not be tolerated. "Neither France nor Europe are doormats," he told Franceinfo radio.

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Mr Lu added fuel to the fire by initially refusing the diplomatic summons on Monday, and saying he would go on Tuesday to present his own demands.

The summoning of Mr Lu was the latest sign of increased tensions between China and western governments over Beijing's mounting military and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory, and over the Communist party's persecution of Muslim Uyghurs in the province of Xinjiang.

The US, EU, UK and Canada have imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials and a security organisation over the country's treatment of the Uighurs in a co-ordinated move that sparked an immediate retaliation from Beijing. China imposed travel bans on 10 EU individuals, including French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, and four entities, saying the EU's sanctions were based on "lies and disinformation".

European officials and MEPs have in turn condemned China's tit-for-tat sanctions, warning that they threaten the EU-China relationship, including a recently concluded investment deal that has yet to be ratified by the European Parliament.

“It’s not by attacking academic freedom, freedom of speech and the fundamental freedoms of democracy that China will answer the legitimate concerns of the EU,” the French foreign ministry said.

‘Counterproductive’ style

Mr Bondaz called Mr Lu’s style of diplomacy “counterproductive” since it had aroused previously dormant French public opposition to Chinese policies.

“I think it’s linked to a large extent to the personality of the ambassador. He’s always been more aggressive,” said Mr Bondaz, suggesting Mr Lu might be aiming to be chosen as foreign minister after next year’s 2022 Communist party congress. “I think he has personal ambitions. He wants to appear in China as the diplomat who defends the country at all costs, who is the most aggressive, even if it provokes an incident.”

This is not the first time Mr Lu has been criticised in France. Mr Le Drian summoned him last April over China’s propaganda campaign on how the world had handled the coronavirus pandemic, including what Mr Le Drian called “calumnies” against French healthcare workers in old people’s homes.

Mr Lu’s embassy had published a vitriolic letter purportedly written by an unnamed “Chinese diplomat in Paris”, although it was eventually removed after repeated French demands. Among other accusations, the letter said carers in old people’s homes had abandoned their posts and left old people to die of hunger or disease.

The Chinese embassy in Paris did not immediately respond to a request for comment. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2021