Warning on trade as 'genocide’ debated
Trade Minister Damien O’Connor has warned that a parliamentary debate on whether Beijing is committing genocide in Xinjiang would damage trade with China.
Parliamentarians were set to decide yesterday whether their parties would back a motion in Parliament to label the human rights abuses of the Uyghur
Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region of China as an act of ‘‘genocide’’.
Senior Labour ministers have cautioned the use of the genocide label outside the definition prescribed by the United Nations. National Party leader Judith Collins said the Government should release what information it had on abuses in Xinjiang to MPs, to allow them to decide.
‘‘Clearly the Chinese Government wouldn’t like something like that ... I have no doubt it would have some impact [with trade]. That’s hardly rocket science,’’ O’Connor said to reporters, on the way into a Labour caucus meeting yesterday .
O’Connor would not be drawn on whether he supported the prospective motion..
The ACT Party intends to seek leave of the House to debate the motion of notice today. The motion will ask MPs to vote on whether the human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region of China amount to genocide, and whether they should call upon the Government to ‘‘act to fulfil its obligation’’ under United Nations conventions.
Workplace Relations Minister Michael Wood said there were ‘‘credible reports’’ of human rights violations, and New Zealand wanted China to open up to the United Nations investigation.
‘‘The term genocide has a very specific meaning in international law and that hasn’t been established. So, we’ve been really clear that we’re not using that language, but we have those serious con
cerns; we’ve expressed those,’’ he said.
‘‘If you start playing fast and loose with a particular word with the significance of that one, you do potentially degrade it, so there have to be independent investigations into this and that has been New Zealand’s position.’’
Collins said National wanted to see the information the Government held.
‘‘We take this very seriously. And at the same time, we’re aware that if the Government has information that they haven’t shared, they should share it pretty quickly, I think, with MPs.’’
She said New Zealand’s trade relationship with China was the ‘‘elephant in the room’’ when such issues were discussed.
‘‘If you’re looking at trade, at the moment, clearly we are [beholden to China] in terms of trade. So 29-30 per cent of our trade goes to China.
‘‘However, we’ve said for a long time that we should learn always from the past and the past should have taught us that we should never have all our eggs in one basket when it comes to trading.’’
National MP Simon Bridges said New Zealand now faced a ‘‘more aggressive China’’ and a ‘‘more dangerous world’’, but he would not be drawn on his own view of the genocide motion.
‘‘There’s the complexity, of course, in that we want to try to have strong relationship with China, but we also need to, without fear or favour, call out human rights abuses,’’ he said.
‘‘The past should have taught us that we should never have all our eggs in one basket when it comes to trading.’’ Judith Collins National leader