China raises extradition for expat criminals with Peters at APEC
By Pattrick Smellie in Manila
Nov. 13 (BusinessDesk) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has raised with his new New Zealand counterpart, Winston
Peters, the extradition of Chinese nationals facing corruption and criminal charges.
Long an ambition of Beijing, the issue of an extradition treaty has stalled because of New Zealand’s opposition to
China’s extensive use of the death penalty, including for commercial crimes.
“The issue of corrupt individuals wanted in China and domiciled in New Zealand did seriously come up,” Peters told New
Zealand media in the Philippines capital, Manila, where he is accompanying Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the East
Asian Summit meeting hosted by the Association of South East Asian Nations.
The pair moved yesterday from Da Nang, Vietnam, from the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit to
Manila as part of Ardern’s first outing on the international stage.
Peters said he had raised the precedent where a “most wanted” Chinese national, William Yan aka Bill Liu, had been
convicted in a New Zealand court of money laundering funds obtained corruptly in China. In that case, Yan was sentenced
to five months’ home detention in New Zealand and repatriated assets worth $42 million to China.
“That was a very successful case and they understood that,” said Peters. “That will be a serious precedent in the
future. I think it’s fair enough for us to cooperate with them, providing of course that they don’t execute anybody as a
consequence of our action.”
However, Peters stopped short of supporting opening extradition treaty negotiations with Beijing.
“I would consult with my colleagues in the government to make sure we were all on the same wavelength,” he said at a
media conference where Ardern said she would be raising New Zealand’s “dim view” of the use of the death penalty in her
bi-lateral meeting Monday with the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang.
Ardern also has formal meetings scheduled at the ASEAN summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, the Indonesian president Jokowi Wadodo and the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk.
She did not formally meet Chinese president Xi Jinping at APEC and is not meeting US president Donald Trump formally at
either meeting.
On the prospects for the stalled negotiation of a free trade agreement with India, Ardern said advancement of the
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which includes India, was seen as a “quicker route” for improved
trade ties.
She would reissue a long-standing invitation to Modi to visit New Zealand.
A meeting of ministers in the RCEP negotiations is occurring on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit, with Agriculture
Minister Damien O’Connor representing New Zealand.
She is also seeking a further meeting with her Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, where she has turned up the
heat in the last two days over the need for progress on the plight of some 600 asylum seekers on Papua New Guinea’s
Manus Island, where Australia has been holding them. A humanitarian crisis is unfolding as the detainees protest the
closure of the facility where they have been held, citing personal safety fears.
(BusinessDesk)
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