Britain’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) – a collective of the country’s trades union groups – has launched a report entitled “Way of the Dragon” examining what Britain can learn from Communist China. The report, which is unfortunate enough to share its name with a 1972 Bruce Lee martial arts film, will be backed up by a major discussion event at TUC headquarters.
Union bosses claim that “rather than asking what China can learn from the West, can we ask what the UK can learn from the rise of China?” They are hoping that experiences from the brutal regime can help educate the left about how to improve the United Kingdom.
Amongst the speakers at the event will be Martin Jacques, a visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. Jacques recently authored a book entitled ‘When China Rules the World: the end of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order’.
News of the TUC event comes on the day that China cancelled its bilateral human rights discussions with Britain. The talks, which were hailed as a major step forward by Prime Minister David Cameron, were called off after China claimed Britain was ‘interfering’ in its internal affairs.
The Guardian reports a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Office said: “The principle of equality and mutual respect is the essential basis for China and the UK to carry out dialogue and communication on human rights.
In China, the free press is outlawed, arbitrary arrests are common, torture was only recently outlawed and they execute more people than the rest of the world combined. However, they are very good at making consumer electronics.
The 1972 Bruce Lee film ‘Way of the Dragon’ was released in the United States of America as ‘Return of the Dragon’. In the film Lee’s character (Tang Lung) goes to Rome to help his Uncle Wang fend off the local mafia. The seminar is not thought to have been inspired by the plot of the film.
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