1. KEITH LOCKE (Green) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Will she ensure journalists travelling with her, as part of the delegation she is leading to China next week, will enjoy normal press freedoms as outlined in international human rights treaties; if not, why not?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Acting Prime Minister) Link to this
The New Zealand media travelling to China will have the same rights as other foreign media in China. The New Zealand media have travelled with the Prime Minister to China in the past.
How can the Prime Minister effectively raise human rights issues with the Chinese Government when it has been so weak in defending the rights of even a New Zealand journalist—that is, Nick Wang—to cover the important signing of a preferential trade agreement with China?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
No New Zealand journalists or, indeed, any New Zealand citizens, have a right to enter China. China, like every other country, asserts the right to control entry across its own borders.
Hon Peter DunneDid the New Zealand Government, as part of its delegation to Beijing, invite Mr Wang to participate, and if it did, what assurances, if any, did it offer him at that point about his ability to be able to travel to Beijing as part of the New Zealand team going there for the signing of the free-trade agreement?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
My understanding is that the Government asked for expressions of interest from journalists who wished to go to China with the Prime Minister, and the names of those journalists who wished to go were forwarded to the Chinese Government for processing under its normal procedures. I emphasise that, of course, New Zealand operates exactly the same procedures for people coming into our country and, indeed, on one occasion a person who posed previously as a journalist or a historian, depending on one’s point of view, has been denied entry to New Zealand.
What guarantees can the Prime Minister offer that we will get a free and honest coverage of events taking place in Beijing during the signing of the preferential trade deal, when journalists will be tempted to tone down their criticism of the Chinese Government in order not to be excluded from that country in the future?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
I think it is true to say there are a large number of New Zealand journalists going to Beijing with the Prime Minister. It is not a matter for the New Zealand Government to guarantee free and honest coverage by New Zealand journalists in any circumstance.
Which of the following human rights issues will the Prime Minister be bringing up with the Chinese Premier when she meets him in Beijing—that China lift its lockdown of all Tibetan areas, including allowing full media access; accounting for the missing and dead from this month’s protests; publishing the names of all individuals detained in their places of detention; and, finally, giving immediate access to independent monitors who can investigate whether detainees are tortured or mistreated?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
The Prime Minister clearly will be meeting with the Chinese Premier. I am sure that she will raise issues of human rights within China, as part of that meeting. Of course, the Chinese Government is well aware of the resolution passed by this Parliament, which is one of the strongest resolutions or reproaches from any Western country.
Rt Hon Winston Peters Link to this
Has the Prime Minister received any historical reports about an issue of press freedoms and human rights that would arise with the accession of communist power in China, and does she recall that that accession was supported by the Trotskyites, soon to be joined later on in life by one Keith Locke?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
The Prime Minister receives many reports, both historical and present, about human rights abuses and human rights concerns. I think, as a member previously pointed out himself, almost unanimously in this House—certainly most living politicians, although I can recall a “dead” exception—there was strong support for democratic elections in Zimbabwe and the outcome of those elections, in the first instance. The sad thing is that the promise of that first election has since been so sadly let down.
Does the treatment of the New Zealand journalist Nick Wang by the Chinese Government illustrate how China will have veto over who will have access to the Chinese market, and that businessmen and businesswomen might find themselves equally blacklisted because of their politics or religion?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
No, one cannot draw that conclusion. One can certainly continue to draw the conclusion that China will assert control over its own borders in terms of entry to China. New Zealand does exactly the same thing. Indeed, the member may recall that this Government declined to issue a visa for the entry into New Zealand of David Irving, in the past. We, of course, operate a far freer society, in terms of both internal freedoms and access to people from outside, than China is accustomed to doing. However, the Government firmly believes that continued contact with China is more likely to lead to progress in terms of freedoms than in fact trying to isolate China.