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France asks two Chinese spies to leave the country after attempt to forcibly repatriate exiled Chinese dissident (www.lemonde.fr)

submitted 3 months ago by 0x815@feddit.org to c/europe@feddit.org

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The order came from the Elysée Palace but had to remain secret so as not to offend Beijing. The head of the Paris office of the Ministry of State Security (MSE, or Guoanbu), the Chinese intelligence agency, and his deputy were asked to leave France.
Paris had accused them of orchestrating an attempt to forcibly repatriate a political dissident in March. Chinese officials said it was a misunderstanding and worked hard to demonstrate their good faith. To no avail.
On March 22, an unusual scene drew the attention of France's border police, the DNPAF, at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport. As the police looked on, a man was being restrained by a group of seven individuals who were leading him toward the boarding gates despite his resistance. The intervention of the border police put an end to a plan to forcibly repatriate back to China 26-year-old Chinese dissident Ling Huazhan, described by France DGSI domestic intelligence agency as "a psychologically fragile person."
After an investigation, it emerged that the leader of the kidnapping group was none other than the head of the MSE post in France. Like all foreign liaison officers, he was registered as such with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and holds an official passport which guarantees him diplomatic immunity. His deputy enjoys similar protection.
Ling lived a solitary and precarious existence near the Saint Lazare train station, having fled to Europe as a refugee. He'd been targeted by China for "actions offensive to the Chinese president," for anti-Xi Jinping graffiti and for defacing posters bearing Xi's likeness. He also shared articles critical of the Chinese regime on social media. His passport was withheld as a means of pressure to get him to the airport.

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[-] Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website 53 points 3 months ago

so as not to offend Beijing.

WHO

FUCKING

CARES

"We caught your agents doing illegal things in our country so pinky promise you won't do it again and please please please don't be mad at me for catching you doing something wrong oh pretty please"

Any country, my own included, who gets caught doing shit like that deserves to be blasted, deserves ridicule, and most importantly, does not deserve consideration for nicities.

And given this is such a common thing in other countries, I don't know why anyone bothers listening to them when they say "oh it's just a misunderstanding"

No, you're trying to human traffic someone who doesn't want to return to your country, that's kidnapping at the very least, terrorism in my opinion, and should immediately get their immunity (which was always a stupid idea for a great many crimes) revoked and get tossed in max sec.

[-] veroxii@aussie.zone 8 points 3 months ago

What about offending France (and the rest of the world for that matter)?

[-] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 43 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The order came from the Elysée Palace but had to remain secret so as not to offend Beijing.

So much for it being a secret. I think people are getting tired of China going into other countries and harassing Chinese people that live there.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

What the fuck? Put the kidnappers in prison and give the dissident asylum!

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 3 months ago

It was probably one of those situations where the kidnappers had diplomatic immunity and the host country had no other option but to declare them persona non grata.

[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 months ago

i wonder why they didn't do it like the indians did in canada recently

[-] lurch@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago

they tried, but their bonking sticks were made of chinesium

[-] federalreverse@feddit.org -2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Fwiw, one of our issues is that Chinese products are actually better than their Western counterparts. Especially when it comes to police and surveillance tech. "Chinesium" as a meme is pretty outdated at this point.

[-] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 months ago

a man was being restrained by a group of seven individuals who were leading him toward the boarding gates despite his resistance.

Obviously just a misunderstanding

[-] Objection@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago

The Chinese embassy issued a response here

I don't read French, but from Google translate, the Chinese narrative is roughly as follows: Ling Huazhan approached the embassy claiming that he had been taken in by Falun Gong and burned his passport as a protest, but had changed his mind, and was now out of money and in need of help. The embassy put him in contact with a charity that provided him with room and board, while contacting his family in China, who purchased a plane ticket for his return. Due to the delicacy of the situation and his history of mental health issues, he was accompanied to the airport, at which point he abruptly changed attitude and claimed to be being abducted, in order to create a diplomatic incident.

I'm not claiming that that narrative is true, but just describing their response.

this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024

211 points (98.6% liked)

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