Liberal Initiative party leader João Cotrim de Figueiredo has called for a review of the agreements Portugal has with China, after hearing the director of Safeguard Defenders – the NGO that has produced a report describing alleged informal Chinese “police stations” operating in this country. “The many agreements that Portugal has concluded with the People’s Republic of China should be carefully reviewed to see if we are not, with a total lack of reciprocity and a total lack of diplomatic balance, giving powers to the Chinese state, a dictatorial state that is a persecutor of its own citizens, which also becomes a persecutor of citizens of third countries,” said Cotrim Figueiredo last night. It has to be stressed that Safeguard Defenders’ allegations have not been confirmed by any official source yet.
