China says using "European values" as pretext to hurt interests of other countries unacceptable

BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday said it doesn't accept the French leader Nicholas Sarkozy using "European values" as a pretext to defend its act that hurts fundamental interests of other countries.

"We will not interfere in the values adopted by other countries. At the same time we cannot accept using these values as an excuse for act that hurts the fundamental interests of other nations and peoples," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told the regular Tuesday press briefing.

"France is a great nation and I believe the French values are not based on hurting the interests of other nations and peoples," he said.

Liu's said this when asked to comment on French President Sarkozy's recent remarks that the French side would like to restart dialogue with China, but "not at the price of renouncing our own European values."

China-France ties have been soured by Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama early December. The annual China-EU summit scheduled for the beginning of this month was also postponed.

As China and France are going to celebrate their 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties next year, Liu said China valued its relations with France and would like to see China and France celebrate the occasion in a harmonious, festive atmosphere and with much sense of achievement.

"But the recent developments do not conform with such aspirations and we believe the French side don't want this to continue either," said Liu.

"We have said repeatedly that the responsibility for the current difficulty lies in the French side," Liu said.

"We hope the French side will pay attention to China's concerns and take action to solve the problem so as to create the conditions to better celebrate the 45th anniversary and boost the long-term, all-round sound development of the bilateral strategic partnership."