Cullen backs China's refusal of visa

The Government has defended China's right to refuse a visa to a New Zealand journalist wanting to cover the signing next week of a historic free-trade deal in Beijing.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen yesterday compared China's refusal of a visa for Capital Chinese News editor and political activist Nick Wang to the Government's 2004 denial of entry to British historian David Irving, a convicted Holocaust denier.

Wang had sought a visa to cover Prime Minister Helen Clark's China visit for the signing of the New Zealand-China free-trade agreement.

The deal, to be signed on Monday, comes amid international concern over China's bloody crackdown in Tibet.

Wang is a New Zealand citizen and outspoken critic of Beijing's human rights record. He has campaigned against closer ties between New Zealand city councils and their Chinese counterparts.

Despite being a member of the press gallery covering Parliament, he was evicted in April last year by police from a photo opportunity with visiting Chinese Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan.

Cullen told Parliament yesterday that Clark would raise human-rights issues in China but he rejected a suggestion from the Green Party that the Government should speak out in Wang's support.

Green MP Keith Locke asked whether Clark could effectively raise human-rights issues in China when she had "been so weak in defending the rights of a New Zealand journalist".

Cullen said: "No New Zealand citizen has a right to enter China. China, like every other country, reserves the right to withhold entry across its own borders.

"New Zealand does exactly the same thing, and indeed this Government ... declined to give a visa for the entry into New Zealand of David Irving in the past."

- © Fairfax NZ News