A university professor in France says misunderstandings about Chinese people may have contributed to an incident in Paris in which a female exchange student was accosted twice at a subway station, inciting netizen criticism of French behavior.

The Chinese student said she encountered two women who humiliated her and a friend with words and gestures on the night of April 7, and attacked her the following day. She shared the experience on her Sina Weibo account as a warning to other travelers.

Pierre Piccard, a China expert at University de Paris VIII, told Legal Evening News that the incidents may have been triggered by current economic and social conditions in France.