Survey shows Chinese netizens do not want French President Sarkozy at Olympics

BEIJING, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese netizens have started a new round of anti-France campaigning, targeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy's threat to boycott the Beijing Olympics.

According to an online survey by www.sina.com.cn, a popular Chinese website, by Thursday morning more than 89 percent of the 173,527 respondents do not want Sarkozy to attend the Olympic opening ceremony.

Only 7.8 percent of the participants voted they would accept Sarkozy's presence at the ceremony while another 3.2 percent say they are undecided.

The result of the survey came right after Sarkozy's remark on Monday that whether he would attend the Olympic opening ceremony depended on the progress of the latest talks between the Chinese government and the private representatives of the Dalai Lama.

Sarkozy said he would give his answer next week at the G8 Summit in Japan.

Over 88.2 percent of the surveyed said they found Sarkozy's remarks about China "extremely unfriendly" and "not fit for a leader of a major developed country", while about 10.3 percent consider his remarks only political rhetoric.

In an online forum also posted on the same site, more than 58,200 netizens expressed their dissatisfaction toward Sarkozy's China remarks, with a landslide majority taking the stance that "China does not welcome Sarkozy's presence at the Olympics".

Wu Yikang, chairman of the Shanghai Institute of European Studies, said Sarkozy's inconsistency regarding China is not up to the standard of a thoughtful and responsible statesman.

"Sarkozy's gesture of setting conditions for his attendance at the Olympics is an unfriendly move toward China. It shows his immaturity and carelessness as a politician," Wu was quoting as saying by Thursday's China Daily.

"The Chinese government will certainly not yield to his move," Wu said.

"In a visit to China last year, during which the two countries signed business deals worth billions of euros, Sarkozy said he wanted to 'book a seat' for the Olympics," he said.

"But after the March riot in Lhasa, the French leader said he had not ruled out the possibility of personally boycotting the opening of the Games in protest.

"Some people are acting as if China is begging them to attend the Games," Wu said.

"But no one can achieve anything positive by linking the Games to politics," Wu said.