Sarko Too Nice to China: Critics

Paris seems to have reversed a tide of anti-French sentiment in China, but critics wonder if President Nicolas Sarkozy’s charm offensive has undermined his country’s commitment to human rights, Der Spiegel reports. Since Sarkozy’s messages of conciliation have gone out, China’s Foreign Ministry has praised the French president and state media has reversed its criticism of recently boycotted supermarket chain Carrefour.

"A few calls for a boycott of a French supermarket in China were enough to cause President Nicolas Sarkozy's commitment to human rights to falter badly,” writes Die Tageszeitung. “Sarkozy has shown that he is prepared to grovel,” writes Berliner Zeitung, “and has maneuvered himself into a position of weakness, where it is now possible to blackmail him." (More Nicolas Sarkozy stories.)