When the National Government of 1999 hosted the Chinese President Jiang Zemin in 1999 and police refused protesters their right to protest, the Labour Party and Helen Clark denounced the Government in the strongest possible terms for allowing NZ civil liberties to be trodden on. Now in 2007, Labour has displayed as much interest in upholding civil liberties as National. As has been widely reported, a NZ reporter was barred from a parliamentary photo opportunity last week on the request of the Chinese Embassy. Both Helen Clark and Michael Cullen justified the removal of journalist Nick Wang on the falsehood that he had been creating a disturbance. Luckily, however, video footage has shown that in truth Wang had been entirely calm despite the police harassment, and that the police had acted on Chinese instruction.
Even if the Labour Government didn't directly order the journalist to be removed, they have failed this important and highly-predictable test of ensuring that their own diplomatic protection police don't automatically do this on their behalf as has happened so many times before. As a Herald editorial points out, this ugly occurrence is not an isolated incident. They say: 'It is becoming routine: another high-ranking visitor from China, another suspension of a civil liberty'. Labour again proves no different to National.
