Peking attack on diplomat

Press, 17 November 1981, Page 9

Peking attack on diplomat

NZPA Peking China has fiercely attacked a former Pekingbased French diplomat, Emmanuel Bellefroid, while announcing a sentence of two years “re-education through labour” just passed against his Chinese financee, • Li Shuang. A New China News Agency report in two Chinese daily papers and read on television accused Mr Bellefroid of activities that were “incompatible” with his diplomatic status while describing Miss Li as a “criminal.”. This is the first time that the. i two-year re-education through labour sentence, passed against Miss. Li two weeks ago-.as-an-admiriistra-tive measure by-passing the courts, has been reported in the Chinese press. Miss Li, a 25-year-old painter belonging to the nonconformist Stars group of artists was arrested in September at the gate of the residence where she ' had been living with Mr Bellefroid. __

The agency report'accused Miss Li of being of the type of people who “think nothing of the country’s dignity” and “sell their souls” to foreign interests.

Rejecting arguments that the Chinese authorities acted to prevent the couple marrying, the report emphasised that “China is not hostile to marriages between Chinese and foreigners, nor to normal contacts between Chinese and foreigners.” In its English-language service, the agency also accused Mr Bellefroid, who has just left China after a six-year stay of having-“be-haved in a manner incompatible with his diplomatic status:”- ■ “ - : - This was an allusion to the accusations ' against Mr. Bellefroid. voiced, by the Chinese Prime Minister (Mr Zhao Ziyang) to the visiting French Foreign Trade Minister (Mr Michel Jobert), that the former diplomat had financed, aided, and supported dissident;’ Chinese movements. ' .