Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I do actually because in certain circumstances, we would be very happy to condemn and denounce violence, repression and the destruction of human rights but then we want to pedal softly with China because we have many trade relationships with it. The same goes for Saudi Arabia and I suspect the reason for the silence around Sudan is not dissimilar. The problem with that approach is that if the Hong Kong regime, operating on behalf of the Chinese regime, had succeeded in using violence to repress the mass protest movement, we would have done nothing about it. Thankfully, the people power movement overcame that - for now - but let us remember Tiananmen Square and think about the millions who are being oppressed by the Chinese regime. Should we not be a little more robust in calling out this stuff? Do we take a soft pedalling approach because we think we must develop our trade relations with China and that, therefore, we should just be silent about this stuff? Very little was said at the height of this by the Government or European leaders.

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