The BBC, naturally, covers David Cameron's trip. Cameron mainly came out with visions about great economic success resulting from closer UK-China cooperation. Read here. It is a fair bit of reporting, but if you look at the comments chosen to be displayed on top a funny picture emerges: only comments cautiously and 'cleverly' calling attention to the importance of economic development and the need for larger scale access to Chinese markets are displayed. No critical comments, no condemning comments. It is hard to believe there weren't at least a few reasonable ones.
The Independent also has a short cover on the trip. It sticks to the facts and what the politicians said, but there is an interesting small bit at the very end of the news: "Chinese government spending on medical services accounts for only 2.7 per cent of GDP, compared with 8.4 per cent in the UK, and Beijing has made increasing health spending a priority."
Take into account what the 2.7 per cent of the GDP can cover in a country which has a fragment of the established infrastructure needed to provide normal health care services. Bad roads, bad public traffic, not enough doctors and hospitals, expensive treatments. Not the type of policy we should advocate or look away from, if that serves our short-term interests.
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