I’m not sorry
I’m not sorry about Russel Norman standing up to Chinese imperialism, I’m proud that he did. While I don’t personally have a lot of […]
china
Chinese democracy
According to Chinese State media. The Key government has secretly apologised to the Chinese dictatorship for allowing Russel Norman to protest new vice-dictator Xi Jinping. Since when was a peaceful protest something we apologise for? No apology from the Chinese appears to have been sought or recieved. Shameful, corwardly behaviour from our kowtowing government. [Update. The Herald reports our PM personally called the Chinese to apologise. Jaw-dropping]
Do we now kowtow?
The police won’t lay charges against the security guard who assaulted Russel Norman. Fair enough I guess. They’re out of here today. Probably too minor to justify a prosecution. That doesn’t make what happened OK. A thug for a foreign power violated the rights of one of our MPs on the grounds of our Parliament. A display of contempt for our sovereignty. And our democracy.
Chinese security attack MP
A security guard for Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping attacked Green MP Russel Norman today while Norman was protesting at the Chinese delegation’s arrival, and holding a Tibetan flag. Our Government needs to make a formal protest to China over this incident.
Mining our national parks for the US war-machine
Most of the world’s supply of the key rare earth metals comes from China. That’s a strategic problem for the US, which needs rare earths for high-tech military equipment. They don’t want to be dependent on the world’s other superpower, and potential adversary, for their military hardware. Is it a coincidence that the Nats are so keen to let foreigners mine for rare earths in our national parks?
The Tank Man
It was remiss of me not to post on this last week. June 4 marked the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. […]
Recap: China syndrome
This post was originally published last year but it’s relevant in the light of the naive comments from McCully on Q+A today about […]
Turning a blind eye
Unlike some of the other Standard writers, I don’t usually find Fran O-Sullivan too bad but her reporting of Key’s trip to China […]
Torchure
Amnesty UK has just released the first of four animations intended to highlight human rights abuses in China during the lead-up to the […]