Taoiseach branded a ‘coward’ on rights

Enda Kenny was branded a “coward” yesterday for failing to press visiting Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping harder on human rights abuses.

In angry Dáil exchanges, Socialist TD Joe Higgins accused the Taoiseach of a “shameful” betrayal of prisoners of conscience in China. He said the situation had worsened in the country in the past year as Mr Xi jostled to take over as leader.

Amnesty International had asked the Taoiseach to raise specific cases with Mr Xi, such as that of nobel prize-winner Liu Xiaobo, who received an 11-year sentence for urging peaceful democratic reforms, but Mr Kenny had been too “obsequious” to do so, Mr Higgins said.