Abingdonian 2020

25 www.abingdon.org.uk Lent Term by glory won outside it. For the 2020 Magdalen College School conference, we dominated with the unlikely duo of China and Poland, receiving over ten awards between us. We really enjoyed playing the part. Our ten Chinese delegates not only wore People’s Liberation Army caps for all of the two-day conference, but we also brought our own copies of the bible of the one truth faith (and by true faith we mean Marxism-Leninism with Maoist characteristics) with us. We found the Little Red Books useful in denouncing capitalism (after buying them at extortionate prices). The Chinese delegate for the Political committee, Jonathan Ferry, did superbly, winning an award for outstanding leadership and eloquence in standing his ground on the issue of combating ideological extremism, while one of our delegates for the Human Rights committee, Ted Smethurst, really impressed the chairs with his charisma in explaining China’s policy on LGBTQ+ education. In the Security Council, I faced the issues of the South China Sea and the Uighur Crisis, convincing the P5 to recognise China’s right as a sovereign nation to infringe on the autonomy of other sovereign nations. Toby Pinnington, representing China in the Economic committee, received a commended award for cogently explaining not only why China was innocent in the trade war, but why the Belt and Road initiative was a project the UN should be grateful - even paying China - for. MCSMUN was a pleasure to attend and in the end we maintained our three-year streak in winning the best delegation award out of over 30 schools. Lancelot Wilson, 7DTP