Ordinary people - and media - in the Western countries are so used to their leaders kowtowing to the communist party authoritarians, who run China, that questions about the country´s abysmal human rights record are more or less forgotten.
On Thursday it is Denmark´s turn to give a Royal welcome Chinese President Hu Jintao. Queen Margrethe will host a formal state banquet in honor of the visiting dignitary. Denmark´s socialist Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has described Hu´s visit as "historic", and the left wing socialist foreign minister Villy Soevndal said "the visit reflected Denmark's status as the sole Nordic state and one of very few European countries that has made a Strategic Partnership Agreement with China".
The Danish trade minister Pia Olsen-Dyhr described the real reason for the excitement:
A visit to Denmark later this week by Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to provide a backdrop for companies to sign export deals worth more than 10 billion Danish crowns ($1.68 billion), the Danish trade minister said.
Denmark also hopes the June 14-16 visit will lead to a doubling of exports to China over the next five years and improve the balance of trade, which is now in China's favor, Minister for Trade and Investment Pia Olsen Dyhr told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday
Denmark also hopes the June 14-16 visit will lead to a doubling of exports to China over the next five years and improve the balance of trade, which is now in China's favor, Minister for Trade and Investment Pia Olsen Dyhr told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday
Oh yes, the trade minister also mentioned human rights:
Olsen Dyhr said that Denmark would not miss the opportunity to discuss human rights in China with the Chinese officials. "We always talk human rights when we meet with the Chinese."
These kind of meaningless "discussions" are of course always on the agenda when western leaders meet with China´s authoritarian communist bosses. Their only purpose is to offer a chance to tell the media that "of course we brought up the issue of human rights".
Neither Denmark´s socialist Prime Minister, nor the country´s far left foreign minister will ask Hu e.g. this question:
Mr President, why is your government running a system of state sponsored slavery consisting of more than 1,000 slave labour prisons with more than five million prisoners, among them tens of thousands of political or religious prisoners?
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