BEIJING – President Chirac was accused yesterday of brushing aside Beijing’s human rights record and the legacy of Tiananmen Square as he launched a public relations exercise intended to boost trade links between France and China.

In China to launch the “Year of France,” Mr. Chirac called for an end to the European Union arms embargo, imposed after the 1989 massacre of hundreds of pro-democracy protesters.

He was attacked yesterday by human rights activists for “profoundly dishonoring” the massacre victims and their families.

France has been leading calls in Europe for a lifting of the arms embargo, which Mr. Chirac said on Saturday had “no foundation or justification.” He told President Hu: “It’s a measure motivated purely and simply by hostility toward China.”

The embargo is still supported by several European nations and America.

Mr. Hu said he would not revise the official verdict that the massacre was the suppression of a counterrevolutionary riot, despite repeated calls to do so by Chinese intellectuals at home and abroad.

The Human Rights in China group said: “The bloody suppression of unarmed civilians cannot be considered a matter of ‘another time’ after 15 short years.”

A free press group, Reporters San Frontieres, claimed that China was using French technology to scramble foreign radio broadcasts in China, including the BBC World Service and the Voice of Tibet, based in Norway.

It said Thales, the arms giant part owned by the French government, had sold the Chinese government antennae that were being used to block broadcasts.

Mr. Chirac’s visit was also overshadowed by accusations of censorship of a gala concert and light show staged in the Forbidden City yesterday by Jean-Michel Jarre, when the French musician admitted that the Chinese had forced him to drop plans to perform with the country’s best-known rock star, Cui Jian.

Mr. Cui has been subject to an informal ban by the Chinese government since the Tiananmen protests, when his songs were sung as anthems by student demonstrators.