French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that he had summoned the Chinese ambassador to France on Tuesday to express his “disapproval” with respect to “some recent comments“criticizing the western response to the new coronavirus pandemic.
“I made clear my disapproval of certain recent remarks to the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to France, when he was summoned to the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs this Tuesday, April 14 in the morning“, said the head of French diplomacy in a statement released Tuesday evening.
“Some recent public statements by representatives of the Chinese Embassy in France do not conform to the quality of the bilateral relationship between our two countries“, deplores the minister, referring to the uninhibited campaign waged by this embassy to extol the”victory“of the Chinese government in its battle against the coronavirus and criticize the western management of this epidemic.
“Restore distorted facts”
On Sunday, the Chinese Embassy in France published on its website a long text entitled “Restoring distorted facts – Observations of a Chinese diplomat posted in Paris“Westerners are accused in particular of unfairly denigrating China after calling the Covid-19 disease”grippette“At the start of the epidemic, the Americans were criticized for having dismissed the commander of one of their aircraft carriers who requested the docking of his contaminated crew members.
The text also accuses – without providing evidence – the French nursing staff of establishments for the elderly (Ehpad) of having “abandoned their positions overnight […] leaving their residents to die of hunger and disease“.
“Polemics have no place”
“Covid-19 is a pandemic that affects all continents and all societies. Faced with the virus and its consequences on our economies, there is no room for controversy and France is working resolutely in favor of unity, solidarity and greater international cooperation“, underlines the French Minister for Foreign Affairs in his press release.
China has now largely stemmed the Covid-19 epidemic, the first cases of which were reported in December on its territory. The Chinese government has offered masks, protective suits and gloves in recent weeks to countries hard hit by the Covid-19. But some European officials no longer hide their irritation at Beijing, accused of advancing its geopolitical pawns under the guise of generosity and health diplomacy, while seeking to rewrite the history of the pandemic on its soil.
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