The general consensus this week is that David Cameron has proven himself to be a strong and brave leader, successful at taking risks as he well and truely stands out among other western leaders to be the first to visit China since Liu Xiaobo received the Nobel Peace Prize. The Prime Minister and his team stood their ground on the issue of wearing poppies and continued with business talks and student conferences. David Cameron talking to chinese students about such issues is undeniably, a courageous move for public diplomacy; two decades after the atrocities that took place in Tiananmen Square. It clearly shows that the Prime Minister has taken foreign policy and public diplomacy as seriously as he said he would.
However, it is astonishing that this country will continue to in force the need to improve human rights overseas, namely China, whilst over-looking the violations of human rights that occur domestically and among other 'democratic' states. The most contemporary issue being that of UK soldiers facing war crimes trials following the submittance of videos showing prisoners being tortured by military interrorgators. Furthermore are the recent stories of a 'shadow justice system' in order to impose severe restrictions on the rights of people suspected of acts of terrorism in the UK, which hardly fall in line with the ideas of political freedom.
Another issue that has swiftly been swept under the carpet by the liberal democrat party after the coalition is that of asylum seekers looking for refuge in the UK. Child Detention centres remain open way too long after Nick Clegg's insistence that they be closed, echoing Barack Obamas empty promises for closing Guantanamo Bay. The only way the british public allow the continuation of these violations is because when there are spending cuts and everybody feels the burn; there has to be a scapegoat. If the public knew that an asylum seeker could be detained (without any charge) for an indefinite period of time in this country, for the fact that they fear for their saftey in their country of origin, would they allow it?
There are of course unparallelled differences in cases we find here in the UK and those in China but we should not allow the shock factor of what happens abroad blind us from the hipocracies that occur internally. There is no reason why equal efforts of human rights promotion cannot be made within our own borders aswell as within the borders of potential trade partners. http://http//www.guardian.co.uk/politics/video/2010/nov/10/david-cameron-china-political-freedom
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