With the news that Beijing is intensifying its crackdown on basic human rights and freedoms in Hongkong with the arrest of four trustees of the now defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund for ‘collusion with foreign forces’. Included in the four are Margaret Ng, an internationally respected barrister and 90 year old Cardinal Cardinal Joseph Zen.

Commenting on the arrest of Cardinal Zen in particular, the last Governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten of Barnes, said “The arrest of Cardinal Zen, one of the most important figures in the Catholic Church in Asia and in the Catholic Church’s advocacy for human rights in China and elsewhere, is yet another outrageous example of how the Chinese Communist Party is hellbent on turning Hong Kong into a police state”.

And our response … well, I guess you need to go no further than this comment from Foreign Minister Mahuta made following her meeting with her Australian counterpart when she suggested that “New Zealand needed to maintain and respect China’s particular customs, traditions and values”.

Clearly China has nothing to fear from the NZL government.