THE CONTRAST between the Taoiseach’s visit to China and that made by his predecessor Brian Cowen, four years ago, could not be greater. When Cowen came here in October 2008, it was only five months after he became head of government, but things had already begun to go wrong for him politically.
Cowen’s Chinese sojourn coincided with a bitter public protest by pensioners angry at his government’s ill-fated move on medical cards for over-70s.
The controversy delayed his departure from Ireland, so the Shanghai element of the programme had to be led by then-education minister Batt O’Keeffe. Cowen flew direct to Beijing later in the week, where he met premier Wen Jiabao.
There are no such domestic problems for the Taoiseach, who flew into Shanghai yesterday serene in the knowledge the main opposition party back home was in the grip of an existential crisis over the Mahon revelations.
In fact, the biggest problem for Enda Kenny at the moment must be staying awake, as he copes with changing from the US time zone, where he spent the St Patrick’s festival, to China’s second city, 12 hours ahead of Washington DC.
Some members of the Kenny entourage were understandably showing signs of travel fatigue, but not the Taoiseach himself, who makes the fabled Duracell Bunny look like a burn-out victim – and that’s with the Fine Gael ardfheis to come this weekend.
This is Kenny’s first time in China and the invitation came at the end of last month’s visit by Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping. The latter is expected to take over as China’s principal leader in the near future and it was crucial for Kenny to seize the opportunity.
As with Cowen, his message is that Ireland is “open for business” in a whole range of sectors such as education, financial services, tourism, life sciences, clean-tech and agri-food.
There was a considerable buzz at a reception in Shanghai’s Marriott Hotel yesterday afternoon where representatives of 90 Irish-based companies and institutions met the Taoiseach and Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton.
The speed with which China has transformed itself from an outpost of peasant revolution to the driving force of world capitalism is astonishing and the skyline of multi-storey buildings in Shanghai is breathtaking.
Enterprise Ireland chief executive Frank Ryan told the Irish delegation forging links with China was neither a sprint nor a marathon and they should think of it instead as “a 5,000 metre or 10,000 metre run”.
No less than 440 guests will attend a networking breakfast in Shanghai this morning and Ryan stressed the importance their Chinese hosts placed on a simple issue like getting a photograph taken with the Irish visitors.
It’s another world and clearly a heady experience for China- initiate Kenny, who recalled the tower-blocks built in Dublin’s Ballymun in the 1960s were described as intensive housing but couldn’t be compared in scale and capacity with Shanghai.
He said he would be stressing in his meetings with premier Wen and vice-president Xi that “we are a serious government on behalf of a serious people doing a serious job that works both ways”.
As for the serious issue of the human rights situation in China, Kenny told reporters it would be on the agenda. “Yes, in the course of discussions that we will have with the political leaders here, I will of course mention human rights as I have done on every occasion that I had in the past.”
Noises off-stage suggest China has been going through some political turmoil at the highest level, with reports that a political challenge by regional party boss Bo Xilai has been seen off by the powers-that-be, so perhaps Kenny could also dispense some advice based on his own experience in that regard.
