Dalai Lama row sparks new France boycott calls in China

BEIJING (Reuters) - Angry Chinese nationalists are gathering online momentum for a boycott of French products in protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to meet the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, this weekend.

Beijing has already warned Paris about Sarkozy's decision and said it forced the government to postpone a planned EU-China summit, but some citizens want a more tangible response to what they see as a slight to national pride.

"I am using my real name to swear to the French: I am going to boycott French goods for my whole life. I will never use French brands or any product made in France," said one poster, who identified himself as Yan Zhongjie. An early posting calling for a boycott was blocked, probably by censors wary of sentiments that earlier this year escalated into protests outside French-owned stores after the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay was disrupted by anti-China protesters.

But cached records show it was seen by nearly 850,000 readers and notched up 90,000 comments before it disappeared.

Fiery nationalists like Yan see the Dalai Lama as a Machiavellian separatist who wants to split China just as it is rising to international power after over a century of humiliation, poverty and political impotence.

The elderly monk, ultimate spiritual and political leader for millions of Tibetans, says he does not seek independence, only autonomy, for a people who are currently seeing cultural and religious traditions slowly crushed.

The Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959 after a failed insurrection against Chinese rule in Tibet, occupied by People's Liberation Army troops from 1950. China accuses his supporters of stirring unrest in Tibet in March, claims the Dalai Lama has rejected.

France has said Sarkozy will meet him at a December 6 ceremony in Poland to honor former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa.

China's government, while it has been unusually vehement on an issue that always raises hackles, still seems keen to keep nationalist sentiment as low key as is politically feasible.

Although there is a massive French presence in China, and much for companies like Carrefour to lose, China has a trade surplus with the European nation and antagonizing key partners during a global slowdown could be risky.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said on Thursday that Sarkozy's proposed meeting with the Dalai Lama had caused "a lot of dissatisfaction" with the Chinese people, but also called on the public to be "calm and rational."

"We hope the French side can work hard to resolve the current difficulties," he told a news briefing.

(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison, Ben Blanchard and Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie)