A politician meets many varied people. The other day I had a visit from a Chinese diplomat, the First Secretary (Political) no less.

Why you may ask does a member of the Greater London Assembly merit a visit from a senior official of the Chinese government?

Well it all revolves around the "Falun Gong" a religious organisation apparently with a following of up to two million people in China and a further number throughout the world. The Chinese government banned the practice a couple of years ago and began imprisoning and intimidating members.

Now being a fairly liberal sort of person I am on the whole against banning anything and certainly not in the habit of criticising anybody else's religious beliefs or lifestyle.

Therefore when contacted by a constituent who is having trouble obtaining a visa to visit her elderly parents in China because she is a Falun Gong practitioner, I looked into the issue further.

Then I proceeded to place a motion on the order paper of the London Assembly which was mildly critical of the Chinese government.

Now meditation is not something I go in for in a big way except in the Barnet Council chamber when certain colleagues are making their oft heard and seldom understood speeches.

However, the practice of Falun Gong is not the issue just the human rights of those who choose to practise it.

Anyway having passed the motion, my friend the diplomat (also a constituent, apparently) came to see me. In a rather surreal way he told me that nobody ever died in Tiananmen Square the clear implication being that it happened round the corner and that certainly nobody was ever killed in custody.

Sadly "prisoners died of disease" rather, I suggested, like they used to "slip in the shower in South Africa".

Certainly not, claimed the First Secretary. Furthermore it was all a CIA-funded American plot.

My suspicions were confirmed by a letter in response to the motion passed by the Assembly from the Chinese Ambassador (another constituent!) who departed from the usual diplomatic language to write in rather hysterical and derogatory terms to the chairman of the Assembly, Trevor Phillips.

Now Trevor is not usually one to stand on his dignity but this letter was too much and ensured further discussion at the Assembly.

Well, you can sleep happily in your beds that war is not about to be declared between London and the Peoples' Republic of China.

But the whole incident brings home the fact that the sort of freedoms we take for granted in our multicultural, multiracial city are still denied to vast numbers of others.

London may be a world city but Peking has a long way to go before it joins us.