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Chinese leader too much of a coward to face lone protester in New Zealand
People's Congress of China chairman Wu Bangguo takes side door
to avoid MP's protest 
 
Chinese security guards tried to have free-Tibet protester Green Party co-leader Rod Donald removed from the view of
National People's Congress of China chairman Wu Bangguo as he arrived at Parliament today.
Mr Wu did not walk up Parliament's
steps on the red carpet laid out for him but took an alternate entrance through the Beehive.
"I think Mr Wu should
have taken the honourable step of walking up the steps to our Parliament but that's his choice," Mr Donald told reporters.
"What
I am concerned about is the Chinese security who tried to get me cleared away from standing on the forecourt of Parliament.
"...the
Chinese government needs to know we are a democracy, not a police state, that this is Parliament a people's place not Tiananmen
Square where people who speak up for democracy are shot."
The Greens are calling on the Chinese Government to enter
into negotiations with the Dalai Lama over the future of Tibet - a country occupied by China from 1950.
"The point
of my protest was to highlight not just what the Chinese Government is doing to the people of Tibet but what it's doing to
its own people."
China last year executed 3400 people and thousands were in prisons and forced labour camps for their
political views, Mr Donald said.
"I fervently hope that (Prime Minister Helen Clark) does raise human rights issues
with Mr Wu because its unconscionable for New Zealand to be kow towing to China for a free trade agreement and not also raising
issues of Tibet, issues of Taiwan, issues of the labour camps, child labour, exploitation and destruction of the environment."
Mr
Donald said his protest was directed at the Chinese and New Zealand governments.
Chinese security officials called
for police to remove him. Four guards then blocked Mr Donald from view but Parliamentary security asked them to step aside.
"He
ducked in the side door. They saw the Tibetan flag and they hate seeing the Tibetan flag because it means something to them.
They know they have oppressed the people of Tibet," she said.
Mr Wu is the second highest ranking politician after
President Hu Jintao. While in Wellington Mr Wu, the head of China's equivalent of Parliament, will meet Miss Clark and Ms
Wilson.
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