Friday, December 10, the French Embassy in China relayed on the Chinese social network Weibo – the equivalent of Twitter – a particularly virulent message from the European Union delegation in Beijing. This evoked the non-respect of human rights in China, on the occasion of the international day of these rights. Originally, the EU delegation – the equivalent of an embassy – issued a scathing statement, in Mandarin, and simply posted a link to the text on Weibo. The French Embassy, for its part, relayed the declaration in its entirety.
In this text, an inventory of all human rights abuses at work in China. All taboo subjects are discussed there. First of all, the death penalty: “The number of executions in China exceeds that of all other countries combined”, denounces the European Union, believing that it is necessary “abolish this inhuman practice”. Then, the question of Uyghurs who suffer “arbitrary detentions”, from “restrictions of liberty” and “sexual violence”.
The EU delegation also quotes the names of 22 Chinese condemned by the government, whose release it is asking for. She warns about “censorship and intimidation” of journalists and calls for respect for the rights of women and LGBTI people. She finally urges the Chinese authorities to conduct a “full and transparent investigation” about tennis player Peng Shuai, whose fate has worried the world since she accused a Chinese leader of sexual assault.
The press release is relentless and the message posted by the French Embassy in China caused a lot of reactions. In total, more than 6,400 comments were submitted. Many Internet users attack the French embassy. They recall that the French have committed many crimes in Algeria or in the Middle East and that the Covid-19 has killed millions of people in the West. Others thank Paris. Thus, an Internet user writes that “the French embassy has become a beacon on Weibo”.
Surprisingly, this post is still live four days after its release. Usually, all messages posted on Weibo are dissected by the social network, or even censored when a sensitive topic is brought up. On Twitter, a Chinese dissident underlined in red dozens of words deemed “sensitive” in this press release: the names of the condemned Chinese, that of the tennis player Peng Shuai, the terms “Uyghurs” Where “transparency”… These words normally trigger an alert and may result in the post being deleted. We can assume that the social network did not want to create an incident by deleting a message from French diplomacy.
Let us also remember that, for its part, the Chinese Embassy in France does not hesitate to give lessons in Paris. She even treated the researcher Antoine Bondaz, author of a commentary on Taiwan, to “small strike”. All this is ultimately fair game … diplomatic.