Overview

• Sophia Chikirou told TV program Quotidien that China is not a dictatorship, calling it a party‑dominant system and asserting that no single man runs the country.
• She argued freedom of expression is not more threatened in China than in France and declined to rank the two countries on press liberty.
• Politicians and analysts, including Clémentine Autain and Raphaël Glucksmann, condemned the claims and pointed to indices placing China among the most authoritarian states.
• Coverage cited China’s standing near the bottom of Reporters Sans Frontières’ press‑freedom list and The Economist’s Democracy Index, as well as Xi Jinping’s concentration of power and removal of term limits in 2018.
• The interview resurfaced debate over a parliamentary report she authored and pushed through the European Affairs Committee in late June that praised aspects of China’s system and criticized EU policy alignment with Washington.