Silence on human rights...the price Europe must pay for China's billions

• Campaigners fear EU will cave in to Chinese demands to tone down criticism of regime’s human rights record

By Jason Groves for the Daily Mail
Updated: 10:56 EDT, 29 October 2011

As EU officials flew to Beijing to beg for financial help last night, Brussels was accused of allowing China to ‘buy Europe’s silence’ over its appalling human rights record.

Campaigners spoke out after the head of Europe’s bailout fund arrived in the Chinese capital to discuss the terms on which the hardline regime might agree to inject billions into the struggling eurozone countries.

Campaigners fear EU negotiators will cave in to Chinese demands to tone down criticism of the regime’s human rights record.

'Buying silence': As EU chief executive of financial stability Klaus Regling (left) flies into China questions are raised about what Hu Jintao will demand in return

Experts believe Beijing will also press for the lifting of a long-standing Western arms embargo and demand preferential trade terms.

Tim Hancock, campaigns director at Amnesty International, warned there was a real danger that Beijing would exploit Europe’s weakness for its own ends.

He said: ‘Human rights concerns must not be traded away in return for Chinese assistance in the euro crisis.

‘In particular, speculation about a possible lifting of the ban on EU arms sales to China is extremely worrying, especially in the context of an ongoing crackdown on dissent and criticism there.

'Buy Europe's silence': As the head of Europe's bailout fund arrived in Beijing campaigners are questioning the price of any possible bailout

‘China must not be allowed to buy silence from Europe. If our silence on human rights issues is at stake, then that is too big a price for Europe and for China’s citizens to have to pay.’

The warning came as Klaus Regling, chief executive of the European Financial Stability Facility, began a humiliating mission to China to ask for financial aid.

His visit follows a pledge by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to lobby his counterpart Hu Jintao directly over the issue.

China, which has a £2.1trillion cash reserve, is seen as one of the few countries capable of shoring up the struggling euro.

The visit follows French president Nicolas Sarkozy lobbying Hu Jintao over a possible bail out

Officials believe Beijing might be persuaded to stump up £60billion to bolster the new euro bailout fund designed to support the struggling economies of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Mr Regling said he was holding consultations to decide the terms for raising the money and was not yet at the point of detailed negotiations on a deal.

He said: ‘Don’t expect any precise outcome of our talks. I cannot say today, and it’s certainly far too early to say what kind of amounts might be envisaged.'

Joining a bailout could help China establish itself as one of the elite governments that helps manage the world economy.

China is said to be keen to see the euro survive as a counterbalance to the dollar.

But Beijing was badly burned by losses made on investments in the United States in the 2008 crash, and is expected to demand firm guarantees that it will not suffer a repeat if it agrees to shore up Europe.

The Chinese are also pressing for formal recognition by the EU that they now operate a ‘market economy’. This would make it far harder to take retaliatory action against the dumping of cheap Chinese goods in this country.

Professor Shaun Breslin, a China expert at Warwick University, said China had a long record of securing demands in return for cash. He said Beijing’s key demands were likely to be economic.

But he added: ‘They don’t like being lectured on human rights and although they can get arms from Israel and Russia, they don’t like the arms embargo because they feel it puts them in the same category as regimes like Burma and Zimbabwe.’

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However, Professor Breslin warned that any move to bail out Europe would be controversial within China, where poverty is still rife, particularly in rural areas.

Lu Daokui, a member of China’s central bank monetary committee, warned on Thursday that China would not throw money into parts of the EU economy deemed a lost cause.

He said: ‘The last thing China wants is to throw away the country’s wealth and be seen as just a source of dumb money.’

Gag on the Tory MPs questions about seizing powers from EU

By KIRSTY WALKER, JASON GROVES and LIZ HULL

David Cameron: There is growing resentment among Tory MPs over his heavy-handed tactics

David Cameron’s support among women is slipping away, with just 43 per cent saying that they approve of the Prime Minister.

A Harris Interactive survey for the Daily Mail has revealed a growing divide between the sexes, with 54 per cent of men saying that Mr Cameron is doing a good job.

The figures will fuel fears among senior Tories that the Coalition, and Mr Cameron in particular, has a ‘woman problem’.

Most worryingly for the Prime Minister is that half of all women between 45 and 54 said they thought the Prime Minister was doing a bad job.

The survey follows a poll earlier in the month which found that one in four voters believe Mr Cameron’s attitude to women is ‘sexist’. Tory strategists are concerned that the Coalition’s cuts are seen as particularly harmful to women, with recent figures showing that the number of unemployed women has reached a million.

Mr Cameron’s standing with women has not been helped by controversial calls from his policy guru Steve Hilton to scrap maternity pay.

A leaked report of the Beecroft report, commissioned by the PM, is said to suggest that Mr Cameron scale back on his pledges to extend flexible working rights.

Concerns over Tories’ loss of female support has prompted Mr Cameron to go on a charm offensive in recent weeks. He made a grovelling apology to two female MPs whom he was accused of dismissing with sexist put-downs in the House of Commons, admitting he had ‘screwed up’.

The Prime Minister wrote to bosses of some of the UK’s top companies warning them that they must do more to promote women into senior positions.

He also elevated Justine Greening into the Cabinet after Liam Fox’s resignation.