Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not saying that the Minister, Deputy Coveney, would give us any great consolation, but we would at least have had the chance to see him looking uncomfortable. The chances that a Minister of State would have an outbreak of independent mindedness on an issue like this against Government policy would mean his promotion prospects would disappear as quickly as a Chinese government contract from a member of Falun Gong.

Let us start with how compromised our political establishment is, and not just in Ireland. When prominent academic and expert on the Uighur people, Dr. David O'Brien, compared the situation in China to that of South Africa during the 1980s, our former alumnus and Minister, Ruairí Quinn, who is on the board of the Ireland China Institute, said, "I don’t think you can compare with what happened in South Africa with what is happening today with the second largest economy in the world ". We should note the economy button was pressed straightaway. He went on to say that, "What the Chinese have achieved in terms of lifting their people out of poverty involves a scale that we in Europe find hard to imagine". There is no mention of the tens millions of people who died and the decades of imposed poverty under the Chinese system. Putting on the cloak of Irish independent mindedness, he then said,"I would be very slow to criticise other systems that have emerged, and that have emerged so successfully ... and as the Chinese have ... and I would have a great respect for how they have done that, mistakes and all". That is a line straight out of the playbook of the Chinese Communist Party.

The excellent book, Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World, shows this is one of many techniques that the Chinese Government employees. It has people it presents as China experts and members of boards and various organisations. In reality, they are cadres of the Chinese Communist Party. There is the double plating of organisations which have one name for cultural and propaganda purposes and another name in the Chinese Communist Party structure because nothing may happen unless there is control of it from that party.

People like Alan Dukes, Enda Kenny and Ruairí Quinn are all names we can associate some way with Chinese engagement in recent years. The day is coming when some committee in the House, as a matter of due diligence, will have to ask people like that whether they benefit financially or otherwise in any way directly or indirectly from what they do in regard to China. The problem is as serious as that. Unless we start asking the hard questions, we will never discover just how compromised our institutions have become.

What has the Government said about the fact that the Winter Olympics will take place in Beijing? A number of us in the House cosigned a letter to the Olympic Federation of Ireland which was met with absolute silence. We objected to the fact that the Olympics are taking place in Beijing and called for no diplomatic engagement. Has the Government even said it would be better if the Olympics did not take place in Beijing? It is unthinkable that there would be any partying or diplomatic engagement. It would be the equivalent of partying on the top deck of a luxury ship while people are enslaved and tortured in the galleys, yet that is what is constantly happening with China.

That is why we had a motion here last year which called on the Government to use all diplomatic and trade links in China to nail the message on the abuse of human rights, the enslavement, torture and coercion of culture and ethnicity of the Uighur people, the suppression of democracy in Hong Kong, the abrogation of the 1980s Sino-British accords that guaranteed the two systems-one China agreement and the abuse of the Tibetan people. No prominent leader could even meet the Dalai Lama without an objection or consequences from China. The list is endless.

An Irish citizen has been detained arbitrarily in China and we do not whether to raise this case because of fear we will damage the chances of getting him home. This is the monster we are dealing with.