The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is due to fly off to China for a high-level state visit which is in part meant to galvanise trade links with this imminent economic giant. This could possibly result in tens of thousands of British jobs, which is good of course.

There are some voices that claim that the UK is being rather underhand in not pushing to criticise China for its poor human rights record while on the other hand not having anything to do with the mad dictator Robert Mugabe who treats his people in an appalling manner.

Of course, we stand to profit financially and economically from being good mates with China but does that mean we can't say anything critical about the occupation of Tibet, or the fact that the Chinese regime executes more people on a yearly basis than the whole of the Western world combined. But can we lecture them? We have very close ties with the U.S. and they have capital punishment.

It's a tricky one and no doubt self-interest on a national level will prevail. It's the way of the world. Perhaps if no one turned up for the Chinese Olympic Games that would make some impact the geriatric Communist/Capitalist regime? We could just call in sick with a note from our doctors..