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pm | Margaret Thatcher: The Road to Power (13th Dec 22 at 2:55am UTC)
Margaret Thatcher: The Road to Power | | I went to Shanghai by train from Hangzhou. My first appointment was to visit a university. I know of several British students who are studying at the university under an exchange programme. I asked about them, and one of the students showed up on time. Everywhere we went, the floor was wet and the furniture was polished. The university library displays several copies of The Economist and even the Hanseatic Proceedings of the British Parliament. Everything seems too good to be true, but that's the way it is. In appearance, Shanghai was the most westernised city I had ever visited: our party was taken on a river cruise and we were all completely mesmerised by the Western-style buildings in the former International Settlement, which looked very much like they had been built before the Japanese invasion ended the colonial concessions in 1941. But the atmosphere in the city is disturbing and alien. A political message was read aloud by a megaphone in the bushes. Shanghai was once home to three members of the Gang of Four, but the new regime has been able to assert its authority there with surprising serenity. I had lunch with the new mayor, who was busy purging political opposition. After all the excesses of the Cultural Revolution — including the burning of the British Embassy library, which housed an irredeemable collection of Chinese books and manuscripts — some of its most precious treasures have been secretly preserved. My interest in Chinese painting led me to ask to visit the city museum and gallery. The scrolls and hangings shown to me were too fragile to be viewed in the sun, and I saw them in a dark room. There are also ancient porcelain and metalwork, the former of which has a special attraction for me. After the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, some things belonging to the essence of China were fortunately preserved. www、xiaoshuotxt.com Section 5 Thinking after the event Little xiaoshuo said txt heaven As I read these pages, I note with some concern that I seem to have established friendly relations with a number of rulers whose human rights records do not stand up to close scrutiny. Indeed, if I were the leader of the opposition in one of these countries, I would have lost my life,Stainless Steel Seamless Pipe, let alone my freedom. How, then, did I manage to establish a reasonable and good relationship with them? There are many explanations that come to mind. First and most obviously, I am visiting as a statesman who is expected to exercise political power in my country within a few years. So they were busy dealing with me and even happy about it. I have no illusions about this. In the same way, I think I have a responsibility to build a relationship that will protect and advance Britain's interests then and beyond. Since they are the rulers of their country, they are the people I have to deal with. At the same time, I also believe that certain distinctions can and should be maintained: rulers with blood on their hands should be treated correctly, but no more; and democratic politicians should be given other symbols of respect, Mirror Stainless Steel Sheet ,304 Stainless Steel Bar, from honorary knighthoods to official banquets in Downing Street. These are all gifts from Britain. Even so, I am not so naive as to think that this will significantly change what authoritarian regimes do. My second consideration is that I have been able on some occasions to secure the release or emigration of political prisoners as a quid pro quo for my visit. There have never been as many releases as I would like; but even a few releases are better than none. And each person's release mean hope for another 10. Indeed, it tells the rest that we have not forgotten them. Third, we must remember that vice, like virtue, comes in many forms. It is a strange reflection of human nature that a ruler may order the killing of a political opponent in the morning and then carry out his promise in a treaty in the afternoon. There were those I dealt with with caution, but they kept their word to Britain and, in some cases, materially helped another country to resist invasion and occupation. Finally, international relations always choose the best of the best, not the ideal.
Even if I had the power to replace one ruler with another — and there never was — I would rarely be able to replace a bad ruler with a better one, and often I would replace him with a worse one. Those who rejoiced at the fall of the Shah of Iran, for example, must today reconcile themselves to the sad reality that the mullahs' regime has repressed its own citizens even more and has fostered terrorism and subversion abroad. In this country, the Shah was a pillar of stability, if only a shaky pillar later on. Countries tend to act in their own interests rather than in the interests of other peoples. All the more reason for people in democratic countries to put pressure not only on foreign governments that suppress human rights, but also on their own governments to improve human rights as a goal of Western diplomacy. I may sometimes resent this second criticism of my conduct in power; however, after a while, I am usually pleased if someone reminds me. www。 xiaoshuotxt。 com A pleasant interlude in the first section Big, student, small, say, ", net." The Liberal-Labor coalition did nothing and did not achieve what their spokesmen later claimed. It has not been able to stop the advance of socialism, let alone defeat it. In fact, it only brought the Labour government to power and enabled it to complete the nationalization of the aviation and shipbuilding industries. The economy is recovering,304 stainless steel wire, fragile but real, but not thanks to Labour. The economic recovery strengthened Labour's political position in 1977-78. The recovery was due to measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund in the previous months. This failed to help Callaghan reduce the influence of the left and defeat it. In fact, the left grew strong and dominated the Labour Party within a few years. sxthsteel.com | |
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