A recent NCC press release proudly proclaimed how our good city is attracting 'overwhelming interest' from China. Seeing this reminded me about how selective our vision has become in the human rights field since China took over the world.
This is of course the same China that has the death penalty for 68 offences and is rumoured to hand out up to 8000 death sentences per year. It's another area in which they are a world leader.
The same China that invaded Tibet and continues to hold it in an iron grip with detention without trial, torture and enforced isolation of the country from the outside world all featuring.
The same China that uses adminstrative punishments such as 'Re-education Through Labour' without trial.
The same China that, in the lead up to the Olympics, actually increased human rights abuses, often against human rights activists. This included sweeps of 'undesirables' from the streets in order to present a harmonious front to foreign media and forced evictions and land seizures.
And we haven't even mentioned Tiananmen Square yet.
But as long as a few Nottingham businesses rake in a bit of cash what's the worry eh? And it's not difficult to see the appeal to JoCo and his mob of a regime that doesn't feel the need to tolerate dissent.
Nottingham claims to be a 'Fair Trade City'.
