Sucking up to tyrants in China

Oliver Kamm reminds us that Newts Livingstone is not the only British politician to make a fool of himself by refusing to admit the nature of the regime ruling China.

Here is Edward Heath writing in his memoirs:

Of course it was right to deplore and condemn the brutal suppression which occurred in June 1989 [at Tiananmen Square] but, in general, we in the West must learn to be rather more cautious about judging the political arrangements in other parts of the world by our own subjective standards.

And here is Tony Benn in his diary:

Had a long talk to the Chinese First Secretary at the embassy - a very charming man called Liao Dong - and said how much I admired Mao Tse tung or Zedong, the greatest man of the twentieth century.