President Emmanuel Macron’s passionate welcome of China’s xi Xi was the subject of a protest led by human rights activists and leaders of Uyghur organizations in Paris on Monday.
Xi flew to Paris on Sunday for an extended tour of Europe, including stops in Hungary and one of China’s most eager partners in Hungary’s shady Belt and Road Initiative ( BRI), which he also stopped in in Serbia. On Monday, Xi and Macron, along with President of the European Union Ursula von der Leyen, held a trilateral meeting in France that was mainly focused on economic cooperation. According to the report from the meeting, neither Macron nor von der Leyen addressed the widespread human rights violations that Xi has ordered the Communist Party to undertake in China, most notably the deliberate eradication of the Uyghur population in East Turkistan.
Macron was defame by Uyghur organizations for not mentioning the ongoing murder of their citizens and forpraising France’s ties to China. Teams representing the Tibetan group, which has also faced years of activity and cultural cleaning, unfurled a banner reading” Free Tibet” on the , Boulevard Périphérique in Paris, where Xi’s parade passed on the way to meeting Macron.
On May 6, 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron and his family Brigitte Macron welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at Paris ‘ Elysee Palace. ( Umit Donmez/Anadolu via Getty Images )
China has long engaged in rampant human rights violations against Uyghurs in East Turkistan, a former communist-run state ruled by Beijing, which refers to it as the” Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” (XUAR ). However, under Xi, abuse spread to a comprehensive genocide, forcing millions of women to endure forced sterilization, and forcing thousands of women to work in horrifying conditions. The state has also established a slave trade network, where it sells Uyghurs to American companies.
A protest organized by the Uyghur Association of France, East Turkistan Government in Exile ( ETGE ), and the  in Paris on Monday that denounced Macron was the main event.
Mirqedir Mirzat, the deputy prime minister of the ETGE and leader of , the Uyghur Association of France, issued notes demanding that Macron “unequivocally criticize” the murder.
” As we speak, these tents are being transformed into proper prison, an ominous sign that China intends no end to its murderous laws”, Mirzat asserted.
” Recognizing the job and colonization of East Turkistan as the core issue, France had advocate for East Turkistan’s right to physical self- determination, respecting its own historic commitment to the principle of self- determination”, Mirzat concluded.
The World Uyghur Congress demanded that Macron acknowledge the murder committed during his day with Xi, in advance of Macron’s scheduled discussions with Xi on Sunday.
” France has the responsibility to raise the ongoing human rights abuses committed by the Chinese government inside East Turkistan, Tibet, and Hong Kong, as well as across Europe with China’s growing international repression”, the leader of the gorup, Dolkun Isa, asserted. According to Macron,” The Uyghur murder must be brought up in public, in line with the resolution of the Assemblé Nationale recognizing the Uyghur genocide,” and to urge Xi Jinping to put an end to the continuing erasure of our people.
On Monday, organizations supporting Tibet, which has faced years of plans that have eroded its speech, religion, and culture, unveiled a symbol in Paris condemning Xi.
According to Radio Free Asia ( RFA ), Tenzin Yangzom, campaign coordinator at International Tibet Network,” we confronted Xi with our message that his time is up and Tibet will be free as he was forced to drive under our banner and Tibetan flags today.” ” The leader should not roll out the red floor for a man who committed genocide,” said Macron and European leaders.
Yesterday, we made Xi fight a symbol he’s striving to remove. In Tibet, waving the regional flag can result in imprisonment and abuse. In France, we bravely displayed it before the engineer of Tibet’s activity.
Support SFT’s efforts against Xi in Europe ▶ ️ https ://t.co/aF33YQZ2gc pic. twitter.com/xYHtn3ZLJP
— Students for a Free Tibet ( @SFTHQ ) May 6, 2024
No official statements from the Élysée Palace suggest that Macron acknowledged Xi’s terrible human rights record or the murder. Macron, who celebrated years of diplomatic relations with China and called for stronger economic ties to Beijing, shared several images of himself alongside Xi on cultural advertising.
” Trade and market access, fair rivals and expense, the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East: relations between China and Europe, our cooperation, are of crucial importance”, Macron wrote in Chinese language on his Twitter profile Monday.
According to experts in human rights, expanding business ties with China is unachievable without exposing a business to human rights violations, especially slavery, because the Communist Party does not allow due diligence in supply chain auditing.
Macron also hosted Xi a luxurious dinner on Monday night for the first time since their appointment with von der Leyen. Additionally, the European state created a lavish sport show in Xi’s name at the presidential house.
President Xi Jinping marches to the Elysee Palace under the bodyguard of a royal army system made up of 148 horses and a motorbike squad. # XiJinping pic. twitter.com/fwHOWCzmOY
— China Daily (@ChinaDaily ) May 7, 2024
Le Président Xi Jinping , et Madame Peng Liyuan, escortés line des cavaliers et des motocyclistes de la Garde républicaine, si rendent une Palais de l’Élysée. photograph. twitter.com/URzh0fxPHt
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 ( @SpokespersonCHN) May 6, 2024
Dilnur Reyhan, a European- Muslim psychologist, condemned Macron in a withering column published on Tuesday by , Le Monde, declaring him oblivious to unbelievable human suffering.
” France, in the name of a claimed opening of the country after the]Wuhan pandemic ] years and a plan of reconciliation with China, hosts the engineer and perfect originator of the murder targeting my people and inexorably destroying them”, Reyhan wrote, continuing:
So, our nights riddled with nightmares, our dislocated genealogies, our sense of powerlessness and our fear of being erased from the history of humanity are meaningless to Macron. To invite the genocidal ogre to the Elysée Palace, to share a “more personal” time with him, all to improve our trade relations and celebrate 60 years of “diplomatic friendship” makes for a peculiar Ash Wednesday supper!
Reyhan noted that Macron’s silence obliterated the French people’s political will by recognizing the Uyghur persecution as a genocide in 2022.
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