How Do You Say "Antagonize" in French?

So this is kind of old news now, but it seems like France is really trying to stick it to China. On April 22, Paris has named the Dalai Lama an honourary citizen, just weeks after President Sarkozy threatened to skip the Opening Ceremonies.

I have no real problem with what Paris did...maybe the timing's off, but how often does the Dalai Lama roll through town? Threatening a boycott of the Opening Ceremonies, though, is a little asinine. As mentioned here in Slate Magazine, the Ceremonies aren't really something that world leaders usually attend anyways. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, for example, Tony Blair was the only leader of the five remaining 2012 host candidate nations to show up. So what Sarkozy did was kind of like saying, "I'm not going to go to the Super Bowl unless America...". Who cares? The Ceremonies don't need you to go ahead, and it's not like you were going to go anyways.