Diplomacy: Olympics versus Human Rights

It has long been acknowledged by the West (privately and with pained expressions) that the Chinese are masters at diplomacy. Well, they have had a few thousand years of practice, haven’t they. The latest situation reminds me of that old tale about the curvy blonde who, seated in the dentist’s chair, grasps the dentist where it counts and purrs “now we aren’t going to hurt each other are we”.

So you will be aware of the mind-numbing amount of USA securities that China has been accumulating over the last few years as a result of the huge trade imbalance with the USA. And you will have noticed also that over the past few days the human rights industry has been threatening to disrupt the Beijing Olympics unless something is done about improving human rights in China. Well, this afternoon came the very muted announcement from Beijing that a massive sell-off of USA securities in favour of stronger currencies (Euro) might be contemplated. All very quiet, but massively threatening to world trade.

Living in exciting times!