By JOHN LEICESTER
PARIS – President Jacques Chirac welcomed Chinese President Hu Jintao at Orly Airport on Monday, but some French lawmakers vowed to snub Hu by boycotting his keynote speech to protest Beijing’s human rights record.
Chirac’s presence on the red carpet at the airport for Hu and his wife, Liu Yongqing, was a rare honor by the French president. The two men inspected a military guard as a band played China’s anthem, “March of the Volunteers,” followed by France’s “Marseillaise.”
In a written arrival statement, Hu said France and China–both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council–bear “a great responsibility in world affairs and represent an important part of the international scene.”
Hu did not refer to the two countries’ joint opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. But he said that in “an international context marked by constant, deep changes,” closer China-France relations would favor “peace, stability and prosperity in the world.”
The state visit was Hu’s first to Western Europe since he took power in early 2003. He said he hoped to “write a new chapter in the annals of China-France relations.”
France was looking to strengthen its ties with the world’s fastest growing economy and Asia’s rising power. China is looking to France, one of its warmest friends in Europe, for help in improving relations with the European Union as a whole. Iraq’s reconstruction was also expected to be discussed.
But human rights, a key concern in the country that spawned the declaration of the rights of man in 1789, overshadowed the official agenda. In protest of perceived Chinese abuses, some lawmakers said they would boycott Hu’s address to the French parliament Tuesday.
“Nothing obliges us to listen to him who leads the world’s biggest dictatorship,” Lionnel Luca, a lawmaker from President Jacques Chirac’s UMP party, said on France-Info radio.
“China is not the smiling face it seems,” he said.
Rather than hear Hu, Luca will join protesters of China’s policies in Tibet at a demonstration scheduled to coincide with the speech, said Luca’s parliamentary aide, Marie Huteau.
Chirac did not raise China’s human rights record with Hu in their first meeting Monday but it would be discussed later in the three-day visit, said Chirac spokeswoman Catherine Colonna.
The two leaders did discuss Iraq, Iran, the Middle East and Afghanistan, Colonna said. Chirac also told Hu that France backs Chinese efforts to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula stemming from North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
In what would mark a milestone in China’s long efforts to beat back its human rights critics, European ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday said that the EU could decide this spring to lift its ban on arms sales to China–imposed after Beijing’s bloody 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.
“Our feeling is that the embargo is out of date as relations between Europe and China improve,” said French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.
But “we are not yet at the point of lifting the embargo yet,” he added. “More discussion is necessary,” especially on human rights.
China’s Foreign Ministry called for an end to the ban “as soon as possible,” saying it does not help “the good momentum in the development of the relationship between China and the EU.”
Hu arrived amid a French passion for things Chinese. France has dubbed 2004 the “Year of China,” with a series of exhibitions, dances and other events to celebrate China’s ancient culture that counts Chirac among its many admirers.
During Hu’s visit, even the Eiffel Tower was to be illuminated in red–the color of the Chinese Communist Party and one regarded as auspicious by the Chinese.
China’s economic growth and its increasing interdependence with Europe will be on the agenda of Hu’s trip marking the 40th anniversary of relations with France, one of China’s oldest allies. In his address to the French parliament–a rare privilege for a world leader–Hu is expected to talk about his country’s growth and foreign policy.
Trade between China and France last year exceeded US$13 billion, a 61 percent increase over 2002, according to Chinese figures.
But France lags behind some of its European partners in China’s megamarket and feels that its economic relations with Beijing are not on par with its political ones.
To further cement economic ties, Hu is expected to sign a joint operating agreement between China’s TCL and France’s Thomson SA, a venture that would create the world’s top TV maker–with an expected annual revenue of more than $3.5 billion.
