Chirac puts China massacre in past to help trade

SMH.COM.AU ^ | October 11, 2004 | Hamish McDonald

[Ginifer]

France's President Jacques Chirac declared the Chinese Army's massacre of Tiananmen democracy demonstrators an event in the past as he began a visit here designed to reap lucrative contracts for France's financially pressed state industrial enterprises.

The massacre in 1989 was "another time" he said during an interview with the Chinese Government news agency Xinhua, explaining his call for a lifting of the European Union's arms export embargo on China, imposed after Tiananmen.

The remark brought immediate protests. The New York-based group Human Rights in China, founded by exiles from the suppressed 1980s democracy movement, said that "15 short years" was not long enough to erase a major crime against humanity.

"President Chirac's remarks also profoundly dishonour the many Chinese people who continue to call for accountability for Tiananmen Square," it said in a statement, mentioning the retired army doctor Jiang Yanyong, the thousands of Chinese intellectuals who had signed petitions, and the "Tiananmen mothers" of victims still calling for a reassessment of the official line that the protests were a "counter-revolutionary riot". Advertisement Advertisement

Mr Chirac was unabashed as he stood next to the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, for a 21-gun salute from the People's Liberation Army in Tiananmen Square on Saturday before entering talks aimed at cementing what both leaders call a "strategic partnership".

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Well, I can't stand Chirac but this doesn't disgust me near as much as when Nixon traveled to China in 1972 and clinked glasses with Mao.

[soccer4life]

Boycott France!

[Pastnowfuturealpha]

Didn't Clinton do this first - I remember reading where Hill needed a special toilet or something for the trip -



I think the families of those killed would have a different view - but you really can't come down on France without remembering that the U.S. did exactly the same thing -

[Tallguy]

At least Nixon had a strategic objective: to flip a China into an anti-Soviet alliance. What a minute. Do you think Chirac might be using China against us? Nah, Sen. Kerry would never permit it.

[EEDUDE]

"I think the families of those killed would have a different view - but you really can't come down on France without remembering that the U.S. did exactly the same thing -"

Yeah. We did, and it was wrong then too.

We should not be doing business with brutal regimes who don't observe basic human rights.

And we damn sure shouldn't be selling them equipment that can be used to build weapons that will be pointed at us in the future.

China may eat us for lunch in the not too distant future.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

My point was to address the article's self-righteous indignation over Chirac's willingness to put Tienemen Square behind him. But Nixon had the gall to toast Mao Tse-tung, the architect of the greatest mass genocide ever known. Mao concedes first place to no tyrant, not even Stalin, and we all know what a thorough murderer he was. In a numbers comparison, Hitler was an amateur.

[agere_contra]

We'd all have been better off if the Democrats hadn't lost China in the first place. Now ... where's my copy of "Treason" ...

[Tacis]

Hey, Chirac scored!!! Hopes that makes up for the Iraqi shortfall, Jacques!

[tet68]

2005

Today French President for life Mr. Chirac declared the election of George W. Bush in 2004 to be "in the past" as
he concluded a free trade agreement with the head of the
Democratic Republic of Amerika, John F. Kerry.....

[Edgerunner]

"France's President Jacques Chirac declared the Chinese Army's massacre of Tiananmen democracy demonstrators an event in the past as he began a visit here designed to reap lucrative contracts for France's financially pressed state industrial enterprises."

Yeah, who needs that pesky morality stuff when there's real cash involved?

[Pastnowfuturealpha]

From your post: "China may eat us for lunch in the not too distant future."

I agree 100% - what happened in the 1990s will come back to hit the U.S. hard - and sooner than most people think -(what's happening on our west coast - no one knows or has the answer - or cares)

But you know what - I believe the people who let it happen won't even know why - that's how stupid they are/were -

just my opinion - take care now -

[EagleUSA]

CHIRAC WILL DO ANYTHING FOR A BUCK --- WE KNOW!!!!

He proved it by starving people in Iraq by taking the bribes from SH....

He built a nuke reactor for plutonium so SH could build nukes to kill Israel....

CHIRAC IS A CRIMINAL. BUY NOTHING FRENCH...AND EAT AMERICAN FRIES....the wallet is where it hurts most for Chirac.

[Marie007]

" french president for life Mr Chirac "
Are you crazy, we don't want him for life, 5 years it's enough !

[risk]

Are you crazy, we don't want him for life, 5 years it's enough !

Awesome, we have French patriots.

Liberty Guiding the People by Eugene Delacroix, 1830

Perhaps France will be saved by a new Marianne, or Joan of Arc. (You can read about the tradition of Marianne here).

Marianne is the embodiment of the French Republic. Marianne represents the permanent values that found her citizens' attachment to the Republic: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity". Employed alternately by opponents of the republican system and by its defenders, the name Marianne (Marie-Anne), popular with the working classes, is the symbol of a Republic constructed by the gradual adherence of all of its citizens to one motto. Little by little, Marianne became the most widely shared representation of the motherland, at times fiery and warlike, at times pacific and nurturing.

Maybe it's time to introduce our French friends to Amoss.

[Pearls Before Swine]

This is an easy one to understand. The French are so sophisticated that they don't care who died as long as they get to make money.

[Tailgunner Joe]

A Chinese paramilitary police officer stands guard near Chinese
and French flags flying together in Beijing's Tiananmen
Square Sunday Oct. 10, 2004. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)

[risk]

Eiffel Tower illuminated in red to honor China(28/01/04)

[Tailgunner Joe]

[Tailgunner Joe]