1. Free speech is for thee but not for me, if you’re a diplomat. I know, coz I was a senior Australian diplomat in the 90s. When I was in charge of Austrade East Asia, one of our Senior trade guys who reported to me, based in Taiwan, was fired for saying something that went against Australian policy. To be clear, I didn’t want him fired, and it wasn’t me that did it. I’d fought for him to be cautioned instead. But the guy who wanted him gone was our Prime Minister, Paul Keating, so I lost that battle, no surprise there. The point being that if you’re a diplomat, you’re not allowed to just say what you personally think. As the article above says too.
As a diplomat, “you’re sent abroad to lie for your country”. Not to spout “your truth”. That’s the nub of it.
2. Lu Shaye, contradicting himself, then has a go at those who challenged his comments. Which is just them having their own free speech! Duplicitous dope.
3. In the end, Lu’s free speech was infringed, not by France, but by his very own government: Beijing took down his speech from their Foreign Ministry website.
Of course there are implications here for China’s claim on Taiwan. If post-revolution sovereignty were acknowledged then Beijing’s claim to its “renegade province” would be weakened. Same time they can’t make that as explicit as Lu did. End of.
