BACKGROUND
China's President Xi Jinping and David Cameron have held talks at Chequers on the third day of Mr Xi's state visit to the UK. In a joint statement earlier, the leaders praised the trip as opening a "golden era" in UK-China relations. The Queen has hailed the president's "milestone" trip, but there have also been demonstrations over China's record on human rights during the four-day visit. On Wednesday, a deal to build the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant was announced by Mr Xi and Mr Cameron. Ministers expect more than £30bn of deals to have been agreed during the four days, but critics have accused the UK government of "kowtowing" to Beijing. Full story >>
THE CARTOON
The cartoon by Peter Brookes from The Times shows a waving Xi Jinping and his wife boarding their plane at the end of their UK state visit. However, instead of using the usual passenger stairs, they are walking up the backs of (from left to right) David Cameron, George Osborne, Prince Philip, and the Queen.
COMMENT
The message of the cartoon seems to be that Xi Jinping has "walked all over" the British establishment, who have "kowtowed" to him. Meanwhile, questions on human rights and the dumping of Chinese steel have been swept under the carpet in order not to offend Britain's new "best partner".
VOCABULARY
Kowtow, which is borrowed from kau tau in Cantonese (koutou in Mandarin Chinese), is the act of deep respect shown by prostration, that is, kneeling and bowing so low as to have one's head touching the ground. In the metaphorical sense, it means to act in an excessively subservient manner. • It's no use kowtowing to the boss, he'll see right through you. Kowtow rhymes with 'now now'.
