Compared with the arguments taking place in negotiating rooms and the riots in the streets of Hong Kong this week, there was a deafening silence surrounding China’s growing role in the global trading system at the WTO talks last week.
Even though this giant nation has arguably benefited more than any other from liberalised commerce, and even though its peasants have undergone some of the most wrenching changes suffered by farmers anywhere in the world, there was almost no discussion of these two topics, either inside or outside the five-day meeting.