My Chinese week with Elle Macpherson, the Prince of Wales and Tony Blair

Peking

In Peking, I took Elle Macpherson to dinner at the ridiculous Lan Club — ridiculous because it is entered from the fluorescent lobby of a nondescript office block, and its owner, a very rich Chinese woman, had spent US$23 million on it — paying Philippe Starck for his signature designs. It is also ridiculous because the massive space is so ostentatiously and extravagantly decked out that it jars in communist China. And lest any Kissingeresque character should repeat his canard that China is no longer communist, they should try standing at Tiananmen Square and just mumbling something derogatory about the Chinese leadership, or loving about the Falun Gong gang. Then they will see if China is still communist or not. The likelihood, or certainty, is that they would be arrested within three seconds and chucked into a Yellow Maria. Let’s not forget that in China, the Communist Party owns everything, and the Party ranks above the State.