As a high profile New Zealand delegation heads to China to continue free trade negotiations and expand business opportunities, some are concerned over ethics around the initiative.
The major trade mission, made up of over sixty business and government representatives will be led by Trade Minister Phil Goff.
The trip coincides with the first direct flight from Auckland to Shanghai on November 6.
Manufacturing mecca
China is rapidly becoming the manufacturing bowl of the world said Stuart Ferguson, Chairman of the NZ-China trade association, a guest on the upcoming trip .
The proportion of total textile, clothing, footwear and carpet imports into New Zealand that are sourced from China grew from 45 percent in June 2000 to 60 percent in June 2004.
Most of New Zealand's footwear, apparel and consumer electronics are made in China and Mr Ferguson was told on a recent visit to Placemakers that seventy percent of their stock was imported from China.
Trading influence
One explanation for China's meteoric manufacturing rise, says researcher/writer Barbara Sumner Burstyn, is that business with China is a low-cost, low-wage environment.
She says off-shoring exacerbates the problems in China as "businesses are not committed to the Chinese people in any way. They're committed only to increasing profits for their shareholders."
Mrs Burstyn suggested that businesses should be putting money into helping China if they are doing business there. "Nobody is giving 25 percent of their bottom line to human rights organisations in China, for instance," she said.
Mrs Burstyn believes New Zealanders are in a position to make a profound difference with human rights in China. "We don't have the same juggernaut behind us. And our stand can be very clearly stated. If we had a national identity that really was based on the inalienable right of every human being to a certain basic freedom then we would not be doing business with China. Or we would only be doing business under certain circumstances."
Executive Director of the Business Roundtable Roger Kerr believes a free trade agreement with China will be beneficial from a New Zealand consumer point of view.
"The last thing NZ should think it can do is change things by grandstanding," though he concedes China has to move towards greater political and personal freedoms.
Moral and Ethical Obligations
Green Party Trade MP Keith Locke believes New Zealand is ignoring their moral and ethical obligations by not addressing human rights concerns in China sufficiently. He believes New Zealand business people are being given a false impression of China.
"They [businesses] should at least stop the wool being pulled over their eyes by the Chinese regime and they shouldn't let their business self-interests lead them to ignore the plight of the Chinese people," he said.
While not against trading with China, Mr Locke believes it should be carried out ethically with a real focus on proper labour standards and promoting the importance of unions being legal and operating properly, and promoting the need for political democracy.
"They [businesses] have a responsibility if they're engaging with China economically to help those same people in terms of their human rights," he said.
He is also concerned that New Zealand jobs will be displaced as production goes more and more to China.
The New Zealand Trade and Labour framework published in 2001 talks of core principles being upheld within trade agreements including the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour and the effective abolition of child labour.
"As a minimum, the outcomes of all trade agreements to which New Zealand is a party must be generally consistent with and not undermine these core principles, the promotion of decent work, and the promotion and protection of universal human rights standards," the framework states.
Free trade and forced labour
"Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to be held in 're-education through labour' facilities and other forms of imprisonment without charge across the country," said a recent Amnesty International report.
A 2001 Council of Trade Unions submission stated that China's 'Laogai' is an extensive prison system with estimates of the number of inmates ranging from 10 to 20 million.
Child labour is common and widespread in the manufacture of fireworks, textiles and toys, according to the submission.
United Nations refugees now residing in New Zealand and other countries have told of their experiences in Chinese forced labour camps. Typically, they were made to work extremely long hours, with no breaks on weekends, making such items as Christmas decorations or electronic switches, often for the western market.
Mr Ferguson, also the General Manager of the Chinese shipping line COSCO in New Zealand and frequent traveller to China, said he didn't have any first-hand knowledge of forced labour camps in China.
According to a human rights coalition including Reporters Without Borders and the International Society for Human Rights, the Chinese Communist Party continues to "execute more people every year than the rest of the world combined; imprison and torture people who peacefully exercise their right to freedom of expression and association; and endanger democratic processes in Taiwan and elsewhere in East Asia."
Trading with China:
$6 billion bilateral trade (1.5 billion deficit for NZ)
NZ's fourth-largest trading partner
Government wants to 'wrap up' a free trade deal within two years
NZ was the first developed country to enter free trade negotiations with China
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