Blair panned in China as ‘gold-digger’

Former prime minister Tony Blair's new speech-making career has barely started and the Chinese media have turned on him for being overpaid and speaking in cliches. Blair was is in the middle of a lucrative lecture tour of China, giving addresses with themes such as "From Greatness to Brilliance", when he got to the industrial city of Dongguan, where he is understoon to have been paid £237,000 to address an audience of business people and Communist Party dignitaries.

The China Youth Daily said Blair offered only pleasantries and cliches - little different to the platitudes delivered by party bureaucrats. "Frankly, we are very familiar with all this - it's just like listening to any county or city official's reports," wrote Deng Qingbo. There was "nothing new" in the speech and China was fast becoming a "gold-digging" market for international celebrities.

The 20-minute speech, delivered after a tour of a luxury housing estate, dwelt not just on economic growth but on his personal links with the country. Blair's sister-in-law is Chinese while his seven-year-old son, Leo, is learning Mandarin at school. "China is a very special country, and has a special place in the heart of my family," he reportedly said.

Blair will be glad to get home to London - where he could be on the point of joining his wife Cherie and four children as a member of the Roman Catholic church. According to the Catholic newspaper the Tablet, Blair has received instruction from two priests, RAF chaplain Father John Walsh and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's secretary, Father Mark O'Toole. Blair is expected to be formally 'received' in the next few weeks – well in time for Christmas Eve mass - by the Cardinal in his private chapel at Archbishop's House. He will not be asked to make a speech.