China redefines human rights at summit

WEN JIABAO dealt very firmly with the questions about his country’s human rights record. Calmly and patiently the prime minister of the world’s most populous country redefined human rights.

Speaking at last weekend’s Helsinki summit, he made no effort to justify China’s death penalty, crackdown on free expression or the jailing of anybody that disagrees with the state.

Instead he talked about having taken nearly 200 million out of poverty; making nine years of education free and compulsory for 160 million children; promoting democracy through elections in 680,000 villages and said that a review of the death penalty was being sent back to the supreme court for their judgment.