Chinese Artist Urges Cameron on Human Rights
The Guardian reports:
China's best-known artist, Ai Weiwei, has urged David Cameron to press Beijing on human rights issues this week, as the prime minister leads the largest-ever British delegation to the country.
Writing in the Guardian on the eve of Cameron's visit, Ai says that there has been a pitiful change in global attitudes to China since the economic crisis, with western leaders increasingly reluctant to challenge Beijing.
"Cameron should ask the Chinese government not to make people 'disappear' or to jail them merely because they have different opinions … Cameron should say that the civilised world cannot see China as a civilised country if it doesn't change its own behaviour," he writes.
It is understood that the prime minister plans to raise the case of Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo, serving an 11-year sentence for co-writing a call for democratic reforms. Four weeks ago, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights activism, a decision that incensed the Chinese government, which regards him as a criminal.
While it is very rare for people to disappear in China, there has been international concern over human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has not been seen for months.
