Protesting Wen Jiabao

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrives in New Zealand tomorrow for a high level meeting and talks on the proposed China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. Lest anyone forget, China has a terrible human rights record: torture is widespread and accepted, political protest is subject to heavy sanction by the police and state security forces, dissidents face arrest and long periods of detention, and the arbitrary use of state power (often for the private gain of local officials) is common. The government practices forced abortion and sterilisation as a means of population control, executes 3,400 people a year, and sells the organs of executed criminals and political prisoners on the open market. Helen Clark has as usual promised that human rights will be "on the agenda", but she didn't say exactly where on the agenda they would be; its more likely that she will take a "softly-softly" approach in order not to upset the chances of winning that coveted FTA. Which means that its really up to the New Zealand public to send the message that Helen will not. Unfortunately, the only protests that seem to be being staged are from the Falun Gong. Surely we can do better than that...