I gather more or less everyone will have seen China’s Ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, squirm through his interview with Andrew Marr on the BBC last weekend (if not, you can still watch it here: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1284784810200838145).

I know Liu’s antics weren’t exactly anything new. Nevertheless, as I watched I was reminded of Orwell’s essay, “Notes on Nationalism” (1945), and particularly Orwell’s observation that:

“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”

Incidentally, I’d say that the ambassador’s attempts to plead ignorance (“I cannot see...” and “I do not know—where did you get the video?”) were rather undercut by the fact that he’d obviously been briefed in advance to pivot away (toward saying things like: “Xinjiang is the most beautiful...,” and so on, and henceforth).