It’s a big week for fans of high politics and hobnobbing. Prior to the launch of Sunday’s COP26 shindig there is first the small matter of the G20 summit in Rome. And while the attention of many attendees – chief among them Britain’s Boris Johnson – will no doubt be on green gambits and climate diplomacy, there are fears that other crucial issues risk being overlooked in the dash towards Net Zero.
Chief among these are the various abuses committed by President Xi’s China towards the Uyghur Muslims and the effective destruction of Hong Kong. Xi himself is not expected to physically attend the summit, not having left China since the Covid pandemic began in January 2020. But his apparatchiks will represent him instead – a decision that has prompted human rights activists and various parliamentarians to plot their own protest timed to coincide with Rome’s summit.
Mr S understands that a number of mischief-making, headline-grabbing stunts are set to be held by IPAC – the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.
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