EU parliament president Martin Schulz full of praise for China's communist leadership

A leading candidate for the "Useful Idiot of the Year" award.

Martin Schulz, the socialist president of the European Parliament, is full of praise for the corrupted Communist party authoritarians in charge of China. This is what the enthusiastic former bookseller recently told China Daily:

Martin Schulz believes that the wheel has turned a full circle in the perceptions that Europe has on the Communist Party of China. Schulz, the current president of the European Parliament, says frequent exchanges between the CPC and the political parties in Europe have helped broaden understanding and removed most of the misconceptions.

The leader of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, however, admits that he was one of the early skeptics when the CPC mooted the idea of regular political dialogues between the two sides.

"Most of the interactions that take place now are conducted in an open-minded and pluralistic manner," says Schulz, who heads the European Parliament of 754 members from the 27 member states.

Since May 2010, the CPC and the eight political groups of the European Parliament, such as the European People's Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, have held four closed-door political dialogues on global challenges and Sino-EU cooperation in Beijing and Brussels. -

Schulz, a bookseller-turned politician, says that the CPC has not only played a pivotal role in China's major achievements during the last decade but also provided the strong and decisive leadership that was needed to take the nation forward.

After this lavish praise Schulz can expect a red carpet welcome the next time he jets in to Peking for yet another closed-door "exchange" with the red authoritarians. Behind those closed doors Herr Schulz will not have to meet any of China's persecuted dissidents and human rights activists, who - together with the millions languishing in one of the most extensive and repressive camp systems in the world - remain behind another type of closed doors. 

If there is a "Useful Idiot of the Year Prize", Martin Schulz must be one of the top candidates to receive it this year.