China to India: thankyou for your oppression

The world's largest dictatorship is thanking the world's largest democracy for suppressing pro-Tibet protests:

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said he "appreciated" the steps taken by Indian authorities in handling protests by Tibetan refugees in the country.

More than 100 refugees were detained in India while attempting to march to the Chinese border last week.

[...]

India has not allowed large-scale public protests for fear of embarrassing Beijing.

I wonder if Helen Clark will be receiving a similar thankyou for her efforts to whitewash the issue?

Meanwhile, Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia has gone on trial in Beijing. His crime? Passing information on Chinese human rights abuses and environmental problems to the media. In New Zealand, that's an essential part of the democratic process. In China, they call it "inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system", and stick you in jail for five years. But again, you won't be hearing any complaints about this from Helen Clark - she has a trade deal to think of.