Irish Examiner View: Using prisons to silence critics

File image

If Taoiseach Micheál Martin found a moment yesterday to read the international news pages he may have had the briefest moment of peer envy. He may have envied Chinese President Xi Jinping’s capacity to silence critics.

Ren Zhiqiang, aged 69, had earlier this year described Xi Jinping as a “clown”. He was immediately charged with corruption and after he “voluntarily and truthfully confessed all his crimes” was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Whether he survives China’s prisons and lives to be 87 is an open question but his career as a thorn in Xi’s side is over.