One of the clever things that politicians try to do is to redefine words and concepts that everyone thought they knew the meaning of. Take today’s ‘press conference’ that David Cameron and Chinese President Xi held in Downing Street. That ‘press conference’ consisted of statements followed by two questions, though dozens of journalists had turned up.
Fortunately, the question from the British media came from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, who asked the Prime Minister how he thought a British steel worker would feel that the Chinese president was being ‘ferried down Whitehall in a golden carriage’ and whether there is ‘any price that’s worth paying in order to further our business interests with China?’ She turned to the President and asked ‘Why do you think members of the British public should be pleased to do more business with a country that is not democratic, is not transparent, and has a deeply, deeply troubling attitude to human rights?’
President Xi’s answer was:
‘China attaches great importance to the protection of human rights.
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