HOW many fighter bombers are worth the freedom of a Chinese dissident? That. baldly stated. is the equation which President Jacques Chirac and his Chinese hosts will wrestle with during the French leader's four day state visit, which begins today.
Mr Chirac will meet the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, twice and will dine with the Prime Minister, Mr Li Peng. The high point of his visit will be the signing tomorrow morning of a declaration on "global partnership" between the two countries. Mr Chirac is accompanied by more than 50 leading French bankers and business people and hopes to collect orders for Airbuses, transport aircraft and maybe even a £500 million contract for hydroelectric turbines.
France's blatantly commercial attitude irks human rights groups and many of its European partners. The debate is reminiscent of that on sanctions against apartheid era South Africa. French officials have adopted the terminology once used by the White House and Downing Street - "constructive engagement" rather than confrontation to describe their strategy.
Last month, France refused for the first time to endorse an annual UN Human Rights Commission declaration condemning human rights abuses in China. A "wise, foresighted and courageous" decision. Mr Jiang said. Mr Li Peng called it "perceptive and intelligent". In an interview with French journalists in Beijing before Mr Chirac's arrival. Mr Jiang said he hoped other western countries would follow France's example. A Chinese foreign ministry official announced yesterday that Mr Jiang would reward France by talking about human rights with Mr Chirac.
The EU has embargoed arms sales to China since the 1989 "Tianamen Square massacre. The French government has begun campaigning to have the sanctions lifted, in the obvious hope that France will reap weapons contracts. Mr Chirac's is the first state visit to China by a French president in 14 years and he wants to ,rectify the trade imbalance a £2, billion deficit last year - with China. France ranks only 13th among China's trading partners. far behind the US and Germany.
The Elysee presidential palace invited more than a dozen nongovernmental organisations for a "private and discreet meeting" before Mr Chirac's trip. Amnesty International, the International Federation of Human Rights, Reporters Without Frontiers and Mrs Danielle Mitterrand's group, France Libertes, were among those who attended. Mr Chirac's chief diplomatic adviser promised, that he would not forget human rights.
Yesterday several human rights groups called on Mr Chirac to put pressure on Beijing during his visit. If pressure is not put on the Chinese government, it will be a stain on the credibility of French policy on human rights, in China and elsewhere," Ms Lotte Leicht, the Brussels director of Human Rights Watch. said. The French League of Human Rights asked Mr Chirac to speak out on behalf of Mr Wei Jingsheng, who was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in 1995, and Reporters Without Frontiers reminded him of 12 jailed Chinese journalists.
France was not always so understanding of Chinese human rights abuses. The late President Francois Mitterrand harshly condemned the Tiananmen Square massacre, and went on to sell frigates and Mirage 2000 jet fighters to Taiwan. China immediately retaliated, excluding French companies from major projects and closing a French consulate. Like a dissident confessing to political sins, Paris in 1994 officially recognised Beijing as the "sole legal government" of Taiwan.
