Jim D at Shiraz Socialist gets it right on the visit of Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to the UK.
You’d never guess that Wen Jiabao is the leader of a country that for years has consistently been in the bottom dozen or so states when it comes to human rights, as monitored by NGO’s and human rights organisations. Political, religious and trade union rights are all viciously restricted (at least 14 workers at the Foxconn plant have commited suicide due to conditions there) , there is no free press, physical violence by the state towards journalists and bloggers is harsh and seems to be getting worse. Ethnic minorities are persecuted: Uigar bloggers and journalists were, in 2010, sentenced to long prison terms after unfair trials and, of course, Tibet is still denied independence or even any degree of devolution. Freedom of movement is heavily restricted under the Hukou system that has been compared to ‘apartheid’ in its effects on rural workers, while the One-Child policy (though releaxed in 2002) continues to lead to forced abortions, female infanticide and forced sterilisations. China executes more people each year than the rest of the world combined.
So although the Tories and the capitalists were brown-nosing Mr Wen, naturally the Left and the Anti-War movement were out protesting?
Were they, fuck!
The only protests were small events at Longbridge and in London organised by the Falun Gong religious sect and the Free Tibet campaign. No-one from the organised left attended.
How different it would have been if instead of Mr Wen, the visitor had been, say, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Once again, when the visiting head of state is not American or Israeli, the demonstration-holding Left is nowhere to be found– no matter how brutal and repressive the government he represents may be.
