Mecky Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Oh dear. Does the fool realise we are going to come off worse? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13919917 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortcrust Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Oh dear. Does the fool realise we are going to come off worse? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13919917 I don't see why either country should "come off worse". It's not a zero-sum game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 How? The Brits and most of the rest of the world are quite happy to buy cheap products from China. If the UK can sell more to China and reduce (or eliminate) the present trade deficit, how does that make us worse off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj.scuba Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I hope Cameron asked why China state agents keep hacking UK government departments and companies and trying to steal intellectual property. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I hope Cameron asked why China state agents keep hacking UK government departments and companies and trying to steal intellectual property. ...as well as locking up dissidents and generally being horrible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mecky Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 I hope Cameron asked why China state agents keep hacking UK government departments and companies and trying to steal intellectual property. Don't forget they will also disect the technology and copy it right down to the last. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastbank Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 ...as well as locking up dissidents and generally being horrible. yes but they are paying top dollar for our scrap...so they get our vote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fareast Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Our current attitude towards China shouldn 't come as a surprise to anybody. Throughout history, countries with ' clout ' have usually got away with ' trivialities ' like Human Rights. [ Incidentally how many poor people are executed in America vis-a-vis rich people and black people vis-a-vis white people ? does that fall under the heading of Human Rights ? ] China does NOT treat all its citizens with respect and is brutal towards those who are overtly anti-government. However, I would hazard a guess that things are slowly improving in China and they might well get worse if we tried to isolate China economically. Also, we have to remember that the whole culture and attitude towards individual rights in China is very different from ours, mainly for historical reasons. Terrible things happened in China during the Japanese occupation and the 4 year civil war which followed. The only way the vast country could be united was by having a very tough, centralised system, almost to scare people into working and not fighting each other. [ rather like Tito in Yugoslavia or Stalin in Russia ]. Having said that, I 'm sure the Chinese government could now relax and give its people more freedom, politically. All we can do is to keep up our ties and give them a good example of what democracy is all about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaimani Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Our current attitude towards China shouldn 't come as a surprise to anybody. Throughout history, countries with ' clout ' have usually got away with ' trivialities ' like Human Rights. [ Incidentally how many poor people are executed in America vis-a-vis rich people and black people vis-a-vis white people ? does that fall under the heading of Human Rights ? ] China does NOT treat all its citizens with respect and is brutal towards those who are overtly anti-government. However, I would hazard a guess that things are slowly improving in China and they might well get worse if we tried to isolate China economically. Also, we have to remember that the whole culture and attitude towards individual rights in China is very different from ours, mainly for historical reasons. Terrible things happened in China during the Japanese occupation and the 4 year civil war which followed. The only way the vast country could be united was by having a very tough, centralised system, almost to scare people into working and not fighting each other. [ rather like Tito in Yugoslavia or Stalin in Russia ]. Having said that, I 'm sure the Chinese government could now relax and give its people more freedom, politically. All we can do is to keep up our ties and give them a good example of what democracy is all about. I agree with most of your post. As for the highlighted bit- the kind of democracy here works for us here. We don't need to, nor should we feel we should 'teach' other countries how to do things the way we do things. Outside of religion that very kind of thinking has caused a lot of the problems history has left us with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickiethecat Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 Isn't this about a trade deal and nothing to do with all that human rights nonsense? Cameron's job is to do what's best for Britain not make moral judgments about other countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.