On the evening of December 7, 2008, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei was instructed to summon French Ambassador to China Herve Ladsous, lodging a solemn representation over French President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama in Poland not long ago.

He Yafei said that President Sarkozy, in disregard of strong opposition from the Chinese people and China's repeated solemn representations, persisted in meeting the Dalai Lama as French president, who also holds the rotating EU presidency. This grossly interfered in China's internal affairs, severely undermined China's core interest, gravely hurt the sentiments of the Chinese people and sabotaged the political basis of China-France and China-EU relations. The Chinese government firmly opposes and strongly protests against the action.

President Sarkozy had publicly stressed his obligation as the rotating EU presidency to meet the Dalai Lama and there was the EU flag at the scene. All these showed the French side was imposing its wrongdoing on the EU, which set an extremely bad precedent. The wrong action damaged the hard-earned political mutual trust, comprehensive cooperation and favorable prospect created since the establishment of China-France ties 45 years ago. It is the French side that shall be held accountable for all the serious consequences.

We urge the French side to set store by the bilateral relationship and the interest of the people, truly attach importance to China's just and solemn position and reasonable concerns, fully understand the damage caused by the meeting between President Sarkozy and the Dalai Lama on China-France bilateral relations as well as China-EU relations, and take concrete actions to correct the mistakes on Tibet-related issues.