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A Chinese diplomat blamed recent widespread protests against Covid Zero on outsiders seeking to spark “color revolutions,” an attempt to shift blame away from the harsh rules that dominated urbanites’ lives for nearly three years.
“At first, people took to the streets to express their dissatisfaction with how local governments were unable to completely and accurately implement measures introduced by the central government, but the protests were quickly exploited by foreign forces,” said Lu Shaye, the Asian nation’s top envoy in France.
“We can clearly smell the scent of color revolutions that have frequently happened in developing countries in recent years,” Lu said at a dinner on Dec. 7, according to a statement posted on the Chinese embassy’s website on Wednesday. “Some Chinese were bought by foreign forces.”
The remarks are the first time China has directly blamed foreigners for the demonstrations in dozens of cities late last month — the most widespread unrest in the the Asian nation in decades — though the government has a habit of making similar accusations.
