China pressured London police to arrest Tiananmen protester, says watchdog

> Police watchdog investigators then found evidence that the Met’s treatment of Shao, one of the last protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, was influenced by pressure from Beijing to ensure Xi was not “embarrassed” by protests during his visit.

I'd say no countries dare to not please China. Blatantly attacks the people who risk their lives to say.

> Someone in the Home Office bent over backwards to appease autocracy.

That sounds like a different spin on the exact same narrative to me. Which would appear to contradict your claim about this being a false narrative.

If liberalism, democratic values, multilaterialism, cultural open-mindedness, and compromise aren't at the very forefront of the foreign policy of Western countries, then this is what they will have to look forward to in the next century and beyond.

This is why projects like the EU, NATO, & NAFTA that require compromise for the sake of mutually beneficial cooperation should be supported. This is why continuing any policy of exploitation in the developing world is unacceptable. This is why countries must be actively engaged in the rest of the world, instead of selfishly retreating inwards. This is why making sacrifices in good faith, with no expectation that rivals will reciprocate, is necessary.

Otherwise, these previously powerful countries will quickly discover that when the shoe is on the other foot, there's no reason to believe that China, Russia, or even India will treat them any better than Westerners treated those at their mercy during their own centuries of supremacy.

There was a parallel story in Denmark where the Danish police prevented free Tibet demonstrators demonstrating during the visit of the Chinese president in 2012. It led to an official inquiry but the trail ended blind where the leading police officers giving orders to detain the demonstrators could not remember where their instructions came from and the electronic paper trail had been deleted.

To me the Danish story was less a story about Chinese influence and more about our democracy's separation of powers or lack thereof. How our most powerful politicians and their minions basically can have our police do anything even if it is obviously wrong.

I've read similar stories about lost police documents. A public blockchain could be useful to prevent that.