Will Varadkar or Higgins mention human rights when the Chinese premier visits next week?

Maybe Leo and Michael D, over the tea and buns, might mention Jimmy Lai, a former newspaper publisher currently on trial there on charges of endangering China's national security and publishing seditious material. His real crime was publishing the Apple Daily newspaper (now suppressed), which criticised the Chinese Communist Party. Photograph: Lam Yik Fei/The New York Times In the political dead zone between Christmas and the return of the Dà¡il next week, senior politicians often use the opportunity for some international hobnobbing. The Taoiseach headed off for a whistle-stop tour of the western Balkans, meeting leaders in Kosovo, Montenegro and…