How many need to die to save the face of Wen Jinbao?
The British media is reporting that China has gone ahead with the execution of Kmal Shaikh, a 53 year old father-of-three from London who was convicted of drug smuggling in China. His family have claimed that he was mentally ill and requested a medical examination. The examination was refused by the Chinese and Mr. Shaikh was executed by lethal injection.
The British government had made representation to the Chinese but I suspect that there was some fall out from the recent Copenhagen summit where the authoritarian Chinese leadership “lost face”. The Chinese regime has a reputation for throwing tantrums whenever anyone tries to interfere in it’s “internal affairs” and this time was no exception. As far as the Chinese were concerned Mr. Shaikh had to die for China to save face.
So, the British government is now angry, but one has to ask why? Why did anyone believe that a regime that maintains it’s grip on power at the point of a gun would worry about killing one man? Why does the West kowtow to China?
The answer we are given, by our supposedly informed elite, is that we need to “engage” with China and this will bring reform. Engagement usually boils down to allowing western companies to employ Chinese workers in order to lower costs.
This engagement is taken as an article of faith but I wonder if anyone can site an example where it has worked. I know of no instance where an authoritarian regime has liberalised because outside influences have traded with it and thereby increased that regime’s power. In fact, if assisting a regime to grow richer and more powerful is a recipe for improved human rights, liberalisation and greater democracy then surely this tactic should be tried with Iran.
Our elite are of course TALKING BOLLOCKS! Supporting authoritarian regimes makes them stronger and entrenches their totalitarian instincts. The key to this is that our elites are not interested in greater democracy, they are interested in greater profits.
Our leaders frequently use the terms democracy and capitalism interchangeably but they are not the same. Since the second world war western countries have, in general, been both capitalist and democratic but prior to the war democracy was not so prevalent.
In the UK, prior to 1832 only male landowners could vote. This gradually changed until it included most males by 1918 but women did not get complete voting rights until 1928. So the UK’s claims to be an ancient democracy is complete poppy cock! The UK was, and remains, a capitalist country while democracy is a recent add-on brought about by two world wars and the rise of an alternative to capitalism in the Soviet Union.
During the Cold War, with the threat (and implied alternative), of the Soviet Union, western countries became more liberal. Pensions, health care and workers rights blossomed. However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the inferred failure of socialism, these hard won gains are being eroded. In the UK, one hears constantly of companies closing pension schemes along with exhortations that we must “compete” with China. By “compete” our elite mean that we must accept lower standards in the work place and lower wages.
Our leaders claim that “engagement” with an authoritarian regime will raise their standard of democracy and human rights but the truth is that the Chinese regime has no interest or need to improve human rights and rather than their standards rising we are being forced to lower ours.
We are told that we must compete or we will lose out, but hold on, the implication of this is that if China did not exist we would suffer some terrible fate as we would not be able to take advantage of their cheap labour. This is bollocks! The west went from strength to strength when the Soviet Union and China were both outside the World Trade Organisation. We may choose to trade with China but we do not “need” China.
It is true that the west has benefitted from all sorts of cheap goods from China. One only has to go onto ebay to wonder that it’s possible to buy a USB flash memory radio transmitter for £ 4.61 (yes , I did this!!). This is amazing value but do I need it? No. Would I sacrifice democracy, human rights and our children’s future for the ability to treat all goods as throw away items? NO! Do I want a world where goods are cheap but freedom is limited to an elite? NO!
The truth is that elites are always greedy – socialist or capitalist. Our leaders want engagement to increase profits but at the cost of democracy, civil rights and human rights. The protection from powerful elites is democracy. China is not a democracy and has shown no interest in democratizing.
We should be extremely cautious about becoming reliant on China for any key product or service. We should also be more robust when dealing with the Chinese. As a start there should be major repercussions from the Chinese leaders reckless behaviour at Copenhagen and execution of Kmal Shaikh.
Which do we value more, democracy and human rights or a Chinese USB stick?
Related posts:
china loses face by sabotaging climate change talks
china in who’s hands?
Britain declines while her elite connives
Tags: British Empire, budget deficit, defence budget, demise of Great Britain, democracy, finance industry, funding the military, Germany, Gordon Brown, Great Power, had out chips, hyper-commercialisation, lump of labour fallacy, Military spending, North Sea oil, path to power, pension, professional politicians, war in Afghanistan, World Power
Who do we call?
Military spending has emerged in the media with Gordon Brown TALKING BOLLOCKS claiming he didn’t withhold funds from the military in the run up to the war in Afghanistan. With a massive budget deficit and the widely acknowledged need for drastic cuts both parties are tip toeing around the defence budget trying to pretend it will not be touched. The government have already delayed two aircraft carriers; will they now decommission Trident?
I sometimes wonder if we are witnessing the final demise of Great Britain as a “World Power”. Theoretically the UK won the second world war, coming through with it’s empire intact. On paper Britain was still a Great Power. In reality we were up to our necks in debt to the U.S. and the people of the Empire were understandably in no mood to tolerate a continuation of British rule. The empire dissolved.
In the 1960s North Sea oil was discovered and helped support our inefficient industry for a while. But consider this: While Britain took economic advantage of North Sea oil and it’s economy prospered Germany and France did not do so bad either yet they did not have oil. North Sea Oil is due to run out in the next few years and where will that leave the British economy? In 2008 around 46% of British tax came from finance. The finance industry has now collapsed so where does that leave the British economy? I stress again that Germany has maintained a broadly comparable economy without North Sea oil, without a bloated finance sector and without hyper-commercialisation.
I suggest that with a massive budget deficit, with an un-winable war in Afghanistan to pay for, with very little industrial capability to offer the wold, Great Britain is about to have the rug pulled out from beneath it. We’ve had out chips!
Labour supporters used to say that increasing levels of global competition was merely a race to the bottom. The Tories scoffed that, on the contrary, competition would bring the standards enjoyed by the West to the rest of the world. Tell me, how is your pension doing? Has your company closed it’s non-contributory pension yet? If not, when was the last time the subject was raised. And how’s your job? Do you still have a permanent 9 to 5 job? Do you still get double time on Sundays? I suggest that you don’t. I suggest that many readers will now be part time and even be required to work at weekends at standard rate.
The one thing that the UK does have that developing nations do not have to the same extent is an established and solid democracy and the rule of law. Yet even this is under attack with new laws preventing photography of the police and a ruling party made of visionless power hungary “managers”.
Just this week Gordon Brown defended the link between MPs and their constituencies when debating the electoral system yet the New Labour cabinet is packed full of professional politicians who merely used work for the constituency as a convenient path to power. These men without vision, these people who believe in nothing, these arch manipulators have merely studied politics and the media, worked as assistants to incumbents cabinet members and then been parachuted into Labour safe seats. Check out the wikipedia entries for David Milliband and Douglas Alexander to name just two. The British elite have fined tuned a way of bypassing democracy and they should hang their heads in shame.
So, to summarise:
And finally, it’s raining again!
Oh, maybe it isn’t that bad. The British people aren’t badly educated and the “lump of labour fallacy” means that a growing Chinese middle class will want all the commercialised palaver that we possess. The British do understand democracy and we can work hard when we have to. Arguably, we are best when we’re up against it. Hopefully, in a couple of months, we will throw out this groups of bastards who have taken control of Downing Street and we can make a fresh start.
Ask me again when the weather warms up.