China's Communist Party heavyweights arrive in New Zealand Wednesday for a two-day visit, hot off the back of signing a lucrative uranium deal with Australia.
Wen Jiabao, China's Premier will be accompanied by Minister of Commerce, Bo Xilai, and Foreign Minister, Li Zhaoxing, and talk is likely to focus on a Sino-New Zealand free trade agreement.
Lawsuit
Bo Xilai, China's Minister of Commerce since February 2004, will be under the spotlight as lawsuit papers have been filed in the High Court by lawyers acting on behalf of two Falun Gong practitioners, for his role in the seven-year persecution of Falun Gong.
As Bo discusses trade, the High Court will be determining whether he has contravened the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention Against Torture (CAT).
The complainants, two Falun Gong members who survived torture and persecution in China and now reside in New Zealand, are hoping consideration will be given to the recent introduction of the Crimes of Torture Amendment Bill in NZ about which Justice Minister Mark Burton states, "…this government defends and advances international human rights in the multilateral environment.
"[The Bill] sends a clear message to all those who commit torture and other forms of ill-treatment that New Zealand find these practices abhorrent and intolerable."
The complainants are hoping to sue Bo for torture, crimes against humanity and genocide, in line with lawsuits filed by surviving Falun Gong members in other countries including the USA, Spain, Canada, the UK, Poland, Russia, Romania, Korea, Peru and Chile.
During his term as Mayor of Dalian City (1993 - 2000), general party secretary of Dalian, and Governor of Liaoning province (2001-2004) Bo Xilai planned and managed the persecution of Falun Gong, according to Human Rights groups.
Under his reign, Dalian became one of the cities that severely persecuted Falun Gong, and Liaoning Province is the location of the concentration camp recently revealed to be harvesting practitioners organs for profit.
Background of Bo Xilai
Ironically, Bo Xilai has experienced firsthand the fickleness and brutal nature of the communist regime through events in his teens, which saw him and his family imprisoned for years and his mother beaten to death.
The 'Gang of Four' a power behind the communist regime during the Cultural Revolution, including Jiang Qing, Chairman Mao's wife, imprisoned Bo's father, Bo Yibo, as a political prisoner for his pro-democratic activities and for advocating freedom of trade with western countries. Bo Yibo's family were incarcerated by association, and his wife, Bo Xilai's mother, was tortured to death.
Bo Xilai, 17 years old at the time, and his family were imprisoned for five years, after which they were placed in a labour camp for another five years until their captors were found guilty, resulting in their release.
Subsequently, Bo Yibo became one of the 'Eight Immortals' - a group of elderly members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who held substantial power during the 1980s and 1990s. History has noted many examples of the oppressed becoming the oppressor.
After a meteoric rise through the communist ranks, Bo Xilai is called by some a "Crown Prince" - a derogatory term given to the many Communist Party members said to have inflated positions through nepotism.
Commerce Minister
Now, as Commerce Minister for China's communist regime, Bo has the task of securing materials for China's increasing demand on the world's natural resources as it battles against the threat of its own environment imploding.
This week will see the sixth round of free trade negotiations between our two countries since talks began in December 2004.
Green's trade spokesperson Keith Locke, told One News last week, that efforts to secure a free trade deal with China should not mean New Zealand remains silent on human rights issues.
The Council of Trade Unions also told One News that labour standards need to be included in any trade deal.
The Chinese delegates signed deals with Australia on Monday, ensuring the uranium for their ambitions of around 30 nuclear power stations in the next 15 years. Australian Resources Minister, Ian MacFarlane told The Australian that China was expected to be importing 20,000 tonnes of uranium within 10 years.
China has also tripled its official military budget, from $8 billion in 1997 to $25 billion in 2004 and a Time magazine article reported actual spending may be even higher.
Freedom of Expression
Falun Gong protesters in Auckland and Wellington will be testing New Zealand's freedom of expression this week following a display in Perth on Sunday, alleged to be contrary to basic Australian law.
According to a protester in Perth they [the protesters] were told by security forces to stay completely out of sight and 50 meters away of the Hyatt hotel where the Communist Party members were located.
"We then moved 500 meters up the road out of sight from the Hyatt hotel to a busier location where more people could see our protest. We were there for about an hour before the security police came and told us that we had to move to a designated site and if any yellow T-shirt strayed from that site we would be arrested immediately."
Where does the money go?
On Thursday, protesters in Wellington will not be questioning whether to trade or not, but rather, where the money from trade with China goes.
Many Falun Gong practitioners and former Chinese citizens attest to the elaborate and sophisticated means the Communist Party has in retaining "stability at all costs," as orthodox communist ideology states.
Practitioners believe the "stability at all costs" advocated by the CCP, would require massive amounts of money in order to carry out the ongoing campaigns of the communist party in a nation housing a billion people.
They refer to the astronomical amounts of capital, resources and manpower that must have gone into the seven years of persecution Falun Gong practitioners have experienced. A special extra-judiciary police unit called the "6-10 Office" has been operating since June 1999.
Special brainwashing centres, detention centres and forced labour camps have been operating for seven years. Now, the existence of 36 concentration camps have been revealed by sources, obviously requiring large funds to detain hundreds of thousands of practitioners and perform illegal organ-harvesting operations.
Opposite Ideologies
A report from Paris-based Intelligence Online last June, states the CCP authorities allegedly held a "crisis meeting" in which China's deputy minister of Public Security, Liu Jing, was assigned the job of "stamping out" Falun Gong "before the Olympic Games in 2008."
In direct comparison is New Zealand's Crimes of Torture Amendment Bill, which Mr Burton states will "reinforce New Zealand's reputation for its strong commitment to human rights and encourages other states to follow New Zealand's lead and stamp out torture.