Iain Withers | newsblab

No EU Pope President so far

You don’t have to be a Eurosceptic to balk at the scheming that has taken place in the run up to today’s summit on who will be the first EU President.

Like Cardinals ruminating on a new Pope, leaders and bureaucrats from across Europe have hunkered down in Brussels to choose Europe’s new leader.

It is fitting that the discussions are taking place behind closed doors. Recent EU reform has been little short of a democratic disaster. Most countries pulled back from offering a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty after its forerunner, the EU Constitution, was rejected by public votes in France and Holland.

If I was an MP, I’d be worried about the potential impact of all these non-votes on public opinion.

First there was the coronation of Gordon Brown after he succeeded Tony Blair as Labour leader unopposed. Then there was the election that never was, after Brown shied away from a snap election in 2007. And of course there was no referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, despite a Labour election commitment to hold one on the near-identical EU Constitution.

One can only guess at what millions voting on X Factor and Strictly make of politicians who avoid asking for their opinion at all cost.

The developments in Brussels today are a sign of a worrying trend. Hopefully whoever gets the top EU job will give European voters a say in future.

Photo by Shelley Bernstein. Crudely photoshopped by me.

What hope is there for greater political freedoms in China? Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the massacre at Tiananmen Square and China’s response to the occasion shows that little progress has been made.

Vigils to mark the date were banned in all areas except Hong Kong and foreign journalists were prevented from filming in Tiananmen Square – including BBC journalist James Reynolds, as can be seen in this truly bizarre video footage.

On Monday I went along to a panel discussion put on by the Frontline Club between journalists with an intimate knowledge of China and an organiser of the Tiananmen Square protests 20 years ago.

Below is video from the event and a summary of some of the talking points from the night.

Panelists -
Tim Marshall (Foreign Editor, Sky News)
Sirong Chen (China Editor, BBC World Service)
Isabel Hilton (Editor, China Dialogue)
Shao Jiang (Protest organiser and Amnesty blogger)

Tiananmen, 20 years on

The impact of what happened 20 years ago is still rumbling on. SJ, who took part in the protests, stressed that people still care but that “Government propaganda said people just move on.”

Freedom via the internet?

A few years ago the government introduced their own blogs in response to their growing popularity. The only hitch was that nobody read them.

Much has been made of the democratising power of the internet and IH is one of those people who believe that the internet could well be a catalyst for political change in China. “The Party has an interesting problem with the internet – it is by nature much more cheeky, irreverent and confrontational,” IL said. “Mockery is widespread.”

Freedom via capitalism?

As Capitalism takes root in China, IH argued that there would come a point where Chinese citizens would want to defend their consumer rights – if you buy baby milk that poisons your child, for instance.

Little hope for democracy

Officially the Party plans to have elections for all regional posts by 2010, but the elections will only be contested within the party. National elections or multi-party elections are unforeseeable. “I’m not willing to wait for national elections in my working years,” SC said. IL pointed out that the Party had actually discussed the possibility of splitting itself into four separate parties but that the plans had been shelved.

China and the new world order

“You have a hell of a lot of people who believe that the West ruined China’s prosperity,” IH said. This is historically inaccurate, she argues, but a lot of Party officials told her that that China was no longer in a mood to be pushed around. “Quite honestly what officials say to you after dinner when they’ve had too much Mao time can be quite alarming. ‘In a few years we’ll invade Taiwan and you won’t be albe to do anything about it’; ‘In a few years we’ll have eliminated the Tibetans and you Western liberals will just have to put up with it’. People say these things.”