France did more than roll out the red carpet for the state visit starting Monday of Chinese President Hu Jintao (
The parade down the Champs-Elysees on Saturday, coupled with Hu's four-day visit, is to fete 40 years of diplomatic ties with Beijing. France has dubbed this year the "Year of China" in France, but the parade also marked the Lunar New Year holiday.
PHOTO: AFP
An estimated 200,000 people thronged Paris' most famous avenue to gawk at the spectacle of giant dragons, some 50 floats, acrobats, martial arts experts, drummers or cymbal players.
Red lanterns lined the Champs-Elysees, and multicolored umbrellas added to the festival of colors.
At nightfall, the Eiffel Tower was awash in red, a spectacle to be repeated over the next week.
Hu, escorted by his French host, President Jacques Chirac, is to get his own viewing of the red tower today, when the "Year of China" is formally inaugurated and when Hu is to address French lawmakers, a privilege accorded but a handful of foreign leaders.
France is on the leading edge of European nations looking to strengthen ties with China. Then French President Charles de Gaulle and Chinese leader Mao Zedong (
Today's China, with its expanding economy and increasing interdependence with Europe, makes stronger ties an important foreign policy initiative for Paris.
Concrete issues -- some of them thorny -- were on the agenda for Hu, who is traveling to Egypt, Gabon and Algeria after his Paris visit.
The reconstruction of Iraq will be discussed, according to Chinese diplomats. Beijing, like Paris, opposed the US-led military intervention in Iraq. China and France are both permanent UN Security Council members.
A EU ban on arms sales to China, which France has been working to lift, also is on the agenda. The embargo was imposed after the bloody 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
There is still concern here over China's human rights record highlighted by the Tiananmen crackdown.
The delicate question of human rights will "naturally be evoked,"' said an official in Chirac's entourage, asking not to be identified by name.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Hu will urge French leaders to continue their support of the ``one-China principle'' regarding Taiwan and oppose any formal move toward independence by the nation.
Hu is also expected to sign a joint operating agreement between China's TCL and France's Thomson SA, a lofty venture that would create the world's top TV maker -- with an annual expected revenue of more than euro 3 billion (US$3.5 billion).
France is bidding to work on a proposed high-speed railway linking Beijing and Shanghai. China said last week it had decided against using magnetic-levitation technology because of cost and logistical problems.
Local officials from the Greens party have said they would boycott a reception for Hu tomorrow at City Hall to protest human rights violations in China, and non-governmental organizations have called for a demonstration during Hu's speech to parliament.
Socialist lawmaker Jack Lang, a former minister, was quoted by the daily Le Monde as saying that diplomatic relations must not "lead us to keep silent about the absence of democracy in China."
Also see story:
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS