One would imagine that the Prime Minister of a state which in its 75-year history has never held a democratic election; has murdered tens of millions of its own people in order to maintain the ruling party clique in power; has presided over several artificial famines that cost millions of more lives; has committed genocide against national and ethnic groups, and which has imprisoned untold millions and still holds millions in labour and “re-education” camps, would not be a particularly welcome visitor.
One might even expect that there would be outrage among human rights defenders and clamorous protests by political groupings which organise such events at the drop of a hat when they have been triggered by the visit of an American President who doesn’t belong to the party of many of their benefactors.
But no. Today the Irish state has laid out the red carpet for Premier Li Qiang of the People’s Republic of China. He was greeted at Dublin airport last night by Minister Eamon Ryan who appeared to be genuinely delighted to meet a man who is a part of a regime that not only is responsible for a large and growing chunk of the beastly carbon emissions whose reduction is the responsibility of every Irish person, but which is not bound by any of the urgent “net zero”commitments signed up to by the western democracies.
Diary | President Meets Premier Li Qiang Of The Peoples Republic Of China | President of Ireland
Premier Li made his way to Áras an Uachtaran on Wednesday morning where he met with President Michael D. Higgins who is fond of issuing regular missives on human rights and climate justice and whatever you are having yourself. Did he challenge his Red Eminence (the other one) on any of the most pressing human rights abuses happening in China as we speak?
Press reports claim that human rights concerns were raised, but the official statement from An Áras does not hint at anything other than the deep admiration felt by the Irish establishment encompassing all from government and big business to the left – with, to be fair, the exception of People Before Profit.
The putative government in waiting, Sinn Féin, is not only pro-China – it is “progressive” for some bizarre reason only known to themselves – but far more so than any of the rest seem to be. The record of their Left grouping on China in the European Parliament tells its own story.
In the official statement from Áras an Uachtaráin, it was stated that the President referred to the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two states. He also apparently “resumed conversations which he had with President Xi in 2014 on the interacting crises of climate change, global poverty, food security, global conflict and recasting development to take account of debt.”
RTÉ reports:
This morning, Mr Li received a strong welcome by President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina at Áras an Uachtarain in Phoenix Park.
In a statement Áras an Uachtaráin confirmed that President Higgins also referenced human rights in China in his meeting with Mr Li.
It said he spoke about the forthcoming meetings of the Universal Periodic Review taking place in Geneva which reviews human rights in members of the United Nations.
That all seems nice and vague. Was there any discussion of the constant – and indeed recently escalated – threats by the Chinese regime against the democratic republic of Taiwan? They wouldn’t, of course, want to be interfering with how Ireland and China might be part of the same project to ensure that science and technology be used for “the greater benefit of humanity.”
Was the thorny matter of Chinese concentration camps for the long-suffering Uyghurs people raised at all by Micheal D?
If human rights abuses were discussed specifically then that ought to be referred to in the statement, which is the official record for public purposes, and indeed the citizens ought to be told what those concerns are. We know what the President thinks of many other issues which he is not shy in sharing with us.
It is ironic of course, but par for that same course, that many of those of the bien pensants among the Irish liberal elite who will argue passionately in favour, and voted in favour, of a trade and cultural boycott of Israel will defend this trade and “warm relations” with China on the old opportunist capitalist basis that “trade will open up the Chinese to freedom and human rights and democracy.”
The only ones needing woken are those who fail to realise that China has no intentions of dismantling what might accurately be described as the most perfect totalitarian state in the history of humanity.
The Chinese elite – no more than the Irish left’s icons in Cuba – have no problem enriching themselves through socialism. Some of them do that on a small scale themselves. Tyranny and self-enrichment were never mutually exclusive.
One wonders too, if any of our representatives raised the issue of the Chinese having a police station in Dublin presumably to spy on their own citizens here, which was broken by Gript in September 2022? Or seek assurance, or perhaps even an apology, for the lengthy detention of Irish citizen Richard O’Halloran by the Chinese authorities?
RTE also reported that Leo Varadkar said he did raise concerns about human rights in China, “including the country’s treatment of people in the special autonomous regions of Xinjiang, Macau, Tibet and Hong Kong” but added:
He said it was fair to say that China would have a different view of the facts and would dispute a lot of what is said in the media.
Doesn’t really sound like Premier Qiang was held to account, does it? If China was a smaller, less powerful country, without such huge spending power, the Irish establishment might be calling for sanctions or refusing to host the representative of the most perfect totalitarian state in history – however much they wanted to “dispute” that description.
So the next time you happen to be in the presence of one of those types who is wont to take the high moral ground on ‘Islamophobia’ and genocide and what not, and yet are silent or admiring of the Chinese Communist Party, perhaps ask them when was the last time that they condemned the genocide and other atrocities committed against the Muslim Uyghurs of Xinghiang, or of the long suffering historic nation of Tibet.