NZ ruling party MP accuses China of harvesting organs from political prisoners

 

Labour MP Louisa Wall accuses China of harvesting organs from political prisoners

  Labour MP Louisa Wall has accused China of harvesting organs from political prisoners among the Uyghur and Falun Gong populations.

The MP, who is part of a global network of politicians monitoring the actions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), also says her own government needs to do more to counter what she calls the slave labour trade in China.

  "Forced organ harvesting is occurring to service a global market where people are wanting hearts, lungs, eyes, skin," Wall said.

China expert Professor Anne-Marie Brady of the University of Canterbury, describes the New Zealand government's political strategy on China as something close to a cone of silence.

"Our MPs seem to have a pact that they're not allowed to say anything at all critical of the CCP and barely mention the word China in any kind of negative terms."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta refused to do interviews for the new Red Line podcast, which examines the influence of the CCP in New Zealand.

But Wall has broken ranks.

"I'm concerned that there appears to be a million Uyghurs being imprisoned in what they call education camps, but essentially, used as slaves to pick cotton."

Wall, along with National's Simon O'Connor, is one of two New Zealand MPs in the International Parliamentary Alliance on China, a network of more than 200 politicians from 20 parliaments, set up to monitor the actions of the CCP.

She thinks New Zealand should be doing much more to counter the slave labour trade from Xinjiang, in the north west of China.