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May 16, 2008 6:48:27 AM CDT

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Sarkozy Acts as Chinese Mount Anti-French Protests  

Posted Apr 22, 08 9:18 AM CDT in Sports,  World    Most Popular

(newser) – Two weeks after the Olympic torch relay in Paris, anti-French backlash in China is gaining steam. Rare demonstrations on the streets of Chinese cities, seemingly with the government's tacit approval, have seen French flags burned and defaced with swastikas. As the nations' relationship deteriorates, Nicolas Sarkozy has been forced to step in, reports the Independent.

The French president wrote a letter to Jin Jing, the Paralympic torchbearer who fended off demonstrators from her wheelchair, saying he regretted that she had been "pushed around." Sarkozy is also dispatching top diplomats, including ex-PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin, to meet Chinese authorities and to encourage them to quell the anti-French movement.

Source Independent (UK)

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Sarkozy Acts as Chinese Mount Anti-French Protests
French Senate President Christian Poncelet, left, hands over President Nicolas Sarkozy's sympathy note to Chinese torch bearer Jin Jing, right, in Shanghai.   (AP Photo/Xinhua, Fan Jun)
Sarkozy Acts as Chinese Mount Anti-French Protests
In this Monday April 7, 2008 file photo, Jin Jing, a Chinese Paralympic fencer, in a wheelchair closely protects her extinguished Olympic torch, after the start of the Olympic torch relay, in Paris.   (AP Photo)
Sarkozy Acts as Chinese Mount Anti-French Protests
Protestors hold Chinese national flags during a protest against the Carrefour supermarket and French goods in Wuhan, April 19, 2008.   (AP Photo)
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China  • Nicolas Sarkozy  • 2008 Beijing Olympics  • Olympic torch  • Paris  • Olympic protests  • torch relay


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