Lepper's Chinese checkers

Although the current administration plans a purge of former communists from state institutions, Andrzej Lepper, leader of the populist Self-defense party, is actively looking for comrades.

Last week Lepper was in China as a guest of the country's Communist Youth League of China (CYLC). Rather than participate in crucial coalition negotiations and budget debates in Poland, the former pugilist decided to go to China to "get to know the mechanisms of the Chinese economy."

A 15-strong delegation followed Lepper to Beijing, where he was received by Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, and a member of the political bureau of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee.

Lepper believes Poland ought to follow China's example when it comes to economic development, since "through its own finances, through its own national loan policy, [China] achieved the development of industry and agriculture." Lepper was invited to visit the country by the Central Committee of the CYLC, whose leader, while visiting Poland last year, said that Lepper's program was "similar to our communist one."

Lepper also said he doesn't think Poland should get involved in the contentious issue of human rights in China. "We are interfering in these matters in Russia [and] in Belarus. The only thing we've gained from that, is that today we can't sell anything to Russia," he told Polish Radio.