No friendly politician is too obscure for insecure China, not even Barry Gardiner | Nick Cohen

The Communist party is obsessive in its demand for respect, at home and abroad

The Chinese Communist party appears utterly deluded. Hasn't it learned in its 100-year history that some politicians aren't worth buying? Wasting its money, or rather the money of the subjugated Chinese people, on Barry Gardiner, of all MPs, seems more silly than sinister. Why bother?

If you've never heard of him, Gardiner is an unremarkable Corbynista, who has continued the far left's tradition of excusing anti-western dictatorships. The Labour MP took 420,000, a large whack even by the lax standards of Westminster, from Christine Ching Kui Lee, an influence-peddler MI5 said had established links" for Beijing with British politicians.

Continue reading...