Sarkozy accused of ignoring human rights in talks with Hu (Roundup)

Nov 4, 2010, 19:31 GMT

Paris - Human rights activists on Thursday accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy of ignoring human rights issues as his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao arrived for a three-day official visit.

Critics pointed to planned business deals worth billions of dollars and said Sarkozy was putting economic interests ahead of the fight for human rights in his meetings with the Chinese president.

The criticism came as China placed an order with the plane company Airbus for 102 planes at a list price value of some 14 billion dollars.

Hundreds of people Thursday turned out for a demonstration organized by activist group Reporters Without Borders in support of jailed Chinese civil rights activist Liu Xiaobo, according to the group.

Liu was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize despite protests from the Chinese government. Chinese state security services have since cracked down on activists.

Thursday's demonstrators included well known journalists and politicians, according to the group.

Reporters Without Borders had also written to Sarkozy in advance of Hu's visit, to urge him to press for Liu's release.

Hu arrived Thursday for a visit to France expected to focus on international economic issues and to produce huge business deals for French industry.

Before his arrival telecommunications firm Alcatel-Lucent announced it had signed three contracts worth a total 1.1 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars).

In addition to the Airbus passenger plane deal, there were also to be discussions about new nuclear energy plants for China.

Ahead of the talks, officials said a major topic would be the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) summit in Seoul, where a major issue is the exchange rate of the Chinese currency.

The US and other industrial nations accuse China of keeping the yuan's rate artificially low in order to give Chinese export goods an unfair advantage.

Human rights issues were not on the agenda.

Hu and Sarkozy are not to hold a joint press conference, which media commentators have suggested means that the two leaders want to avoid facing critical questions about China's human rights situation.

Relations between the two countries had previously reached a low point after a 2008 meeting between Sarkozy and the Dalai Lama, and protests during the Olympic torch parade in 2008 by human rights protesters in Paris against China's Tibet policies.

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