Cameron is right to scrap for Britain

In the past, David Cameron took the Chinese premier to task about human rights abuses, and met the Dalai Lama. This week, he only wants to talk trade.

David Cameron's journey from "human rights champion to business pragmatist has been spectacular", says Kerry Brown in The Guardian. In 2011 Cameron took the Chinese premier to task about human rights abuses; in 2012 he met the Dalai Lama, which resulted in the UK being "relegated to the diplomatic deep freeze". This week, he only wants to talk trade. No wonder he is being taken to task for kowtowing to the Chinese.

He should have been "more nuanced and pragmatic" right from the start, says the Financial Times. "All governments face a challenge reconciling trade ambitions with human rights concerns when dealing with authoritarian states." But the UK-China trade relationship will, in any case, have "limited prospects while Britain remains ambivalent about its place in the EU". He says he wants to "champion an EU-China trade deal", but he is the only European leader who has pledged to hold a referendum on quitting the EU.

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