Anti-China protest shadows trade deal

By CHARLIE GATES - The Press
March 17, 2008

The Government is distancing the bloody crackdown on Tibetan protesters from a historic free-trade agreement set to be signed with China within weeks by the Prime Minister, Helen Clark. Trade Minister Phil Goff yesterday said he was "concerned" about the worst riots in the Tibetan region in almost 20 years and by at least 10 deaths in the protests during the weekend. However, he divorced the events from ongoing trade negotiations with China. "The Government is concerned about events in Tibet and the level of violence being reported. That issue is being dealt with separately from trade negotiations with China." The Prime Minister also moved to ensure the riots did not jeopardise long-running free-trade talks with China. A statement from Clark's spokeswoman called for China and Tibetan protesters to "exercise restraint". "The Government is concerned at the reports of violence and is trying to obtain more accurate information. It calls on all sides to exercise restraint."

VIOLENT CLASH: a Tibetan monk pleads for mercy as police arrest him during anti-China protests in front of the United Nations office in Katmandu.

Tibetan protesters, some in Buddhist monks' robes, clashed with anti-riot troops in the regional capital of Lhasa on Friday.

Chinese officials said at least 10 "innocent civilians" had died in fires lit by rioters, but according to Reuters news agency as many as 67 people had been killed in the riots and following crackdown.

Thousands of Tibetan protesters also clashed with riot police in the Chinese city of Xiahe in the Gansu Province on Saturday, said media reports.

Footage showed buildings on fire in Lhasa and throngs of protesters in Xiahe streets.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a travel advisory yesterday, recommending New Zealanders not visit Lhasa or Tibet.

It also advised New Zealanders in Tibet to remain indoors and register with the New Zealand Foreign Ministry.

The riots have erupted just months before the Olympic Games are hosted by Beijing.

Green Party MP Keith Locke called for Clark to delay signing the free-trade agreement until at least after the Olympics.

"It puts New Zealand in a difficult position if it is signing a free-trade agreement when the human rights problems in China are peaking rather than falling. It is a difficult time to be `palsy-walsy' with the Chinese Government," he said.

"At the very least they should delay the signing and have more of a discussion in New Zealand on the merits of the treaty."

He also called for Clark to publicly condemn China's "horrifying" actions in Tibet.

"Our government should speak out against the repression in Lhasa in the same manner as it did last year when the Burmese junta fired into crowds of protesting monks.

"To do otherwise would be hypocritical and fuel the suspicion that we have gone soft on Beijing because a free-trade agreement with China is about to be signed."

National leader John Key said the Tibetan riots were "far from satisfactory", but trade negotiations with China were "independent" from human rights concerns.

"It is very unlikely that they will have any impact on the free-trade agreement. We have been working on that for a long time. We acknowledge the situation in Tibet is far from satisfactory, but that is independent from trade," he said. "The issues around human rights in China and Tibet are not new issues and so in a sense we see them as independent to establishing a trade relationship."

He believed a strong trading relationship would put New Zealand in a better position to raise human rights concerns.

China's sensitivities around the Olympics have seen it block access to Mount Everest for the first time since it was conquered by Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953.

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