Agence France-Presse
Friday 25 September 2015 10.21 EDT<\/p>\n
A Chinese state-run newspaper has praised George Osborne<\/a>, the UK chancellor, for not \u201craising the human rights issue\u201d during his visit to the country.<\/p>\n The Global Times wrote an editorial on Friday<\/a> in which it noted that he is the first western official in recent years to have visited the violence-wracked region of Xinjiang and stressed its business potential instead of \u201cfinding fault over the human rights issue\u201d.<\/p>\n Osborne\u2019s visit to the area, the homeland of the Uighur minority, was highly unusual for a senior western politician. It sought to promote closer business and economic ties between Britain and China<\/a>, but was condemned by campaign groups for putting business opportunities before human rights.<\/p>\n But the Global Times, which is close to China\u2019s ruling Communist party, praised the pragmatism of Osborne\u2019s policy towards the country.<\/p>\n \u201cIt should be diplomatic etiquette for foreign leaders not to confront China by raising the human rights issue,\u201d the editorial stated. \u201cAs a foreign finance minister who comes to China to seek business opportunities, he should keep a modest manner. Some westerners believe their officials should behave like a master of human rights to show their superiority over China and the east.\u201d<\/p>\n The paper concluded: \u201cOsborne has behaved as a top official from a civilised country should, making us believe that his country respects etiquette.\u201d<\/p>\n His trip to the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, came exactly a year after a court in the city imprisoned Uighur intellectual and government critic Ilham Tohti<\/a> for life on charges of \u201cinciting separatism\u201d.<\/p>\n