The People’s Republic of China is a communist dictatorship that is home to more than one in every eight of the 8.4billion human beings on the planet. It is also routinely guilty of horrendous crimes against humanity, and against other living creatures.
For example, China is the number one global sponsor of the poaching of endangered species: It is responsible for almost all the world’s trade in Rhinoceros horns and Elephant tusks and (obscenely) tiger pelts and testicles for the Chinese Traditional medicine market in which insufficiently priapic Chinese men believe that consuming parts of a mighty beast will transform them into an object of female lust and desire. In its legions of markets, all sorts of endangered species are traded, cooked, and eaten. It is the world’s number one purveyor of brutal cruelty to dogs, which are often savagely mistreated before being killed and eaten.
Aside from the animal abuse, it is responsible for a vast proportion of the world’s plastics in the ocean, which flow down the rotten Yangtze river into the pacific. It builds more coal power plants than any other nation, and generally consumes as if there was no point to life beyond consumption. And these are just its crimes against the planet.
It occupies and represses the people of Tibet. It threatens the peaceful existence of the people of Taiwan, whose independence this country and many others are too terrified to recognise. The Uigher people of China have been subjected to an actual genocide, in the fullest sense of that word, as the Communist People’s Republic tries to eradicate their culture and their identity. It is the country of forced abortions, brutal executions, the former one-child policy, and routine disappearances of political opponents.
It is also a global sponsor of the world’s worst regimes: it props up Moscow’s war on Ukraine, and the mass oppression of the people of Iran. It is protector of the monstrous regime in North Korea. Its investments in Africa come with economic strings attached and active support for some of that continent’s most savage leaders.
It is a monstrous country, governed by a monstrous regime.
Or, in the words of Micheál Martin yesterday, it is “peace-loving, open-minded, inclusive, self-reliant, and enterprising.” Those were his words to describe China.
Now I am willing to accept, dear reader, that when it comes to diplomacy with the world’s most populous nation, a little pragmatism is necessary. Ireland has more to lose from antagonising China than it does to gain. I have written on these pages at length about the counter-productivity of this country’s endless posturing on the world stage as some kind of defender of human rights when it comes to Gaza, or of the “rules based order” when it comes to Ukraine. On the world stage, we are a chihuahua yapping at wolves.
But it would be nice, just once in a while, if the people running this country acknowledged their own hypocrisies.
It is one thing for the Taoiseach not to go to China and lecture them on climate, human rights, and all the rest of it: That, I’d agree, would be somewhat pointless and likely to do this country more harm than good while doing precisely nothing of value for Chinese dogs or African Rhinos or beleaguered Tibetans. But it is another thing entirely to go there and lavish praise on one of the world’s worst regimes, or to call it “inclusive” or “peace loving”. That is not diplomacy. It’s just old-fashioned lying.
The Taoiseach could easily have said something like “Irish people have great respect for the history and culture and historic suffering of the Chinese people. We have much in common in terms of our historic experience. We wish for peace and freedom for all the people of China, as we do for all the people of the world”.
It is one thing for Ireland to be the yapping dog of the west when it comes to criticism of the United States, Israel, and various other western states of whose actions it disapproves. But for the Taoiseach then to turn into a simpering stooge in Beijing is another thing entirely, and it does absolutely nothing to alleviate the growing perception across the western world that this country is governed by people who are deeply, deeply, hostile to the west first and foremost.
It should also give us pause domestically about this country’s absurd self-image. We are not, as some might believe, some kind of principled defender of human rights. There is a line going around the place at the moment, for example, that any economic harm wrought on this country on foot of the occupied territories bill would be entirely worth it to “send a message”. Well, a similar message could be sent by this country recognising the independence of Taiwan – which has a much greater claim to statehood than the Palestinian entity ostentatiously recognised in 2023. That, too, would have costs. But in Ireland we are only interested in bearing economic costs in respect of some people’s human rights and freedoms.
The Taoiseach’s simpering performance in China is not out of step with who we are, in the Republic of Ireland. The problem is, very few of us are willing to look right in the face of what we actually are, as opposed to what we believe ourselves to be, as a country.
Unfortunately, many of our western partners and allies are increasingly willing to do just that. And they are not finding it pretty.