Yahoo News China calls on France to protect its citizens after police shoot man in Paris home, sparking clashes
China has called on France to better protect the "security and rights" of its citizens after police shot dead a father of five at his home in Paris, sparking riots in which 35 people were arrested and three officers hurt.
The clashes on Sunday night were the latest in a string of angry demonstrations against police violence in France. They also come only months after thousands of Chinese residents in France took to the streets to demand police protection from muggers who they say prey on them because they are seen as easy targets.
Members of the Asian community launched the protest in the multicultural 19th district on the French capital's northeastern edge on Monday night to pay tribute to Shaoyo Liu, a Chinese man killed on Sunday by a police officer.
They were furious at reports that he was shot in his home in front of his children while he was cutting up fish with scissors.
Police said the officer fired in self-defence during a raid because the Mr Liu wounded an officer with a bladed weapon.
China has issued an "official complaint" to French embassy officials in Beijing over the incident, according to a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, who called for authorities "get to the bottom of the incident as soon as possible".
France must protect the "security and rights" of Chinese citizens, she added. Calling for calm, she said: "We hope that our compatriots in France will make their complaints known in a reasonable and legal manner."
With candles spelling "violence" lining the road on Monday evening, protesters shouted: "Justice must be done, the killer must be punished!".
Scores broke down barricades, threw projectiles and set fire to a car during the clashes with police that lasted several hours. Police said they had tried to find representatives to calmly discuss the shooting, to no avail.
The latest violence comes just days after several thousand people marched in Paris against police violence, in a show of anger sparked by the alleged rape in February of a young black man with a police baton, and other police abuse.
The protest came just days after several thousand people marched in Paris against police violence, in a show of anger sparked by the alleged rape in February of a young black man with a police baton. Anarchists and riot police clashed at the end of that march, and tear gas was fired.
The alleged police rape of Theo in the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois turned the 22-year-old into a symbol for minorities standing up to police violence. His last name hasn't been publicly released.
A police source said: "Thirty five people were arrested during a gathering of around 150 members of the Asian community" in front of the police headquarters for the 19th arrondissement.
Some 26 demonstrators were held for participating in a group planning violence, six for throwing projectiles, and three others for violence against police that saw a police car damaged by arson.
Police said they were called in to deal with a "family row" and "as soon as they opened the door", the man lunged at an officer, wounding him with the blade. A colleague then opened fire to protect him, killing the aggressor, said a police spokesman.
However, the family "totally contests this version of events" said Calvin Job, a lawyer for his relatives. "He didn't wound anyone."
"A neighbour called the police saying he had heard shouting, but there was no family dispute," he said.
The man was simply at home with his five children aged from 15 to 21 and was "cutting up fish with scissors".
"He was scaling the fish with one of his daughters," the lawyer told Le Figaro. She shouted out "don't force the door open, there's point," he added.
But the police officers "forced the apartment door open, which threw him backwards," he said. The Chinese father "didn't strike anyone and didn't rush at police, who opened fire without warning," he alleged.
The family said the neighbour who called the police had a history of making phony complaints, one of which resulted in Mr Liu being wrongly interned in a psychiatric hospital in 2012.
The family will meet with national police inspectors on Tuesday afternoon to give their version of events. An internal inquiry has been launched.
Chaoling Zhang, a Chinese father of two died on August 14 after being punched to ground in the Aubervilliers, a north-eastern suburb of Paris that is home to some 4,000 Chinese immigrants.
The death of a 49-year-old after being badly beaten in a robbery earlier lent new urgency to the long running complaint that Asian immigrants are systematically attacked and robbed in the French capital. More than a 100 Chinese residents of Aubervilliers were attacked last year, according to the Franco-Chinese Friendship Association.
