So, after two days of weasel words and dithering, the New Zealand government has finally come out with a formal statement condemning China's brutality in Tibet. Except, if you actually read it, it does no such thing - rather than condemnation, New Zealand simply "expresses concern", and rather than calling on China to respect the right of peaceful protest, it notes that we respect that right and calls on China to "react carefully and proportionately". There's not even a call to release the political prisoners China has detained.
Again, if this was happening in Zimbabwe or Burma, we'd be screaming about it. But again, the cost of that FTA is our complicity and silence, and Helen Clark has just proven it in spades.
