For the past two years the Chinese regime has been trying to negotiate an extradition treaty with New Zealand. The barrier, of course, is human rights: defendants in China do not receive fair trials, may be tortured and forced to "confess", and may face the death penalty if convicted by their kangaroo courts. Even if not murdered by the state, China's prisons and "re-education camps" are appalling and constitute an ongoing human rights abuse. All of this provides a cast-iron reason to refuse any extradition.
But National really wants to toady to China, so their farmer-cronies can sell more milk. So for the past four and a half years, they've been trying to extradite a murder suspect. They've tried to get around the human rights issues by seeking and receiving assurances from the Chinese regime that the victim will receive a fair trial and will not be executed or tortured. But there's a problem: the High Court doesn't believe China's bullshit:
The Government has been ordered to reconsider a decision to extradite a New Zealand resident to China for questioning about a murder, due to fears he could be tortured or forced to make a confession.
[...]
In her ruling, Justice Jillian Mallon said Adams had followed a "thorough" and "considered" process when making her decision.
However, she had not explained why the Government could trust China's promises to protect Kim, when information about his treatment could only be shared between the two governments and not other people.
"In view of New Zealand's limited experience with assurances from [China] and the limited information from other countries about their experience with [China] honouring assurances, this may be inadequate to protect Mr Kim's rights."
Mallon said it wasn't clear whether promises to give Kim a fair trial would protect him from "ill-treatment" and the right to silence beforehand, given China's laws did not allow Kim to have a lawyer present for pre-trial interrogations.
Unbelieveably, the Minister is actually considering appealing. Which shows how badly National is willing to surrender fundamental human rights for milk sales.
The Minister should not appeal. The Chinese regime's "assurances" are not credible and mean nothing in practice. New Zealand should not extradite anyone to China until it has established a solid track record of fair trials and respect for human rights.
