David Cameron treads a fine line with the Chinese

12 April 2012

The visit by the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers to China was inevitably going to run into problems over their hosts' human rights record: given the sensitivities, he has handled the situation with aplomb.

As always with such visits, trade is the key issue on the agenda — yet human rights violations hang in the air too. The case for stronger trade links with China is unanswerable: Britain must improve its trading relationship with what will eventually be the world's biggest economy. The opportunities when China opens up its vast internal market will be almost unparalleled. Mr Cameron and the UK delegation appear to have made modest if promising progress on such matters.
Yet China's human rights record is undeniably poor. At least a million prisoners languish in appalling conditions in its labour camps. Political prisoners number certainly in the hundreds, including this year's Nobel Peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo, jailed for his human rights activities. And whatever Mr Cameron's doughty defence of democracy and the rule of law, China's citizens will get neither the vote nor an independent judiciary in the foreseeable future.
There is, however, no way around the dilemma posed by the need for trade links with China and our desire to see human rights there improve. Every Western leader has, to a greater or lesser extent, to balance the two. The Prime Minister has done a reasonable job in that respect. Certainly it would do ordinary Chinese no good for their economy to become less open: any move towards democracy is ultimately more likely to come from a restless and growing domestic middle class than from outside pressure. In recognising that hard fact, Mr Cameron's visit may do China as much good as it will the British companies trading there.

Save our libraries

The Standard's investigation into threatened library closures in the capital is deeply worrying to anyone concerned with London's life of the mind.

Our libraries are well used: there were 52 million visits a year to them in London and almost half the city's population are classified as "active borrowers". Yet many London councils told us that libraries will have to close — perhaps as many as 130 in total — as a result of central government cuts to councils' funding.

Libraries should be one of the benchmarks of any civilisation. They provide a vital service for children, for old people and for those less able to afford books. Certainly there is room for improvement. As well as renting items such as DVDs, libraries have expanded into other services such as computing — but they still need to evolve to make themselves more accessible.

There is also room for greater efficiency; duplication of administration between boroughs is wasteful. Some cuts in their overall £200 million-a-year budget are inevitable. But any cuts that threaten their existence, as our survey suggests, would be a retrograde step.

Pedalling east

The ambitious extension east of Transport for London's bike rental scheme is an exciting development. As well as expanding the number of docking points in the existing zone by more than 10 per cent, by 2012 thousands more points and bikes will extend eastwards to the edge of the Olympic Park. London has taken to the "Boris bikes" with great enthusiasm. Now our Olympic visitors will be able to do the same.

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