Clark hopes visit will spur China talks

The visit of China's Premier Wen Jiabao to New Zealand this week will hopefully spur free trade talks between the two countries, says Prime Minister Helen Clark.

New Zealand has been in trade talks with China for some time, but Helen Clark said the pace was as expected considering the differences between the two countries, and the fact that they were the first between China and a Western country.

"Both sides are very conscious of the precedents being set," she said.

Australia is also in negotiations with China and facing similar issues.

New Zealand had been the first Western country to back China's accession to the World Trade Organisation, its status as a market economy and to begin free trade talks.

"Can we make it the four firsts, I don't know. But certainly from our point of view the negotiations have been going well," she said.

China is New Zealand's fourth largest individual trading partner, accounting for over $5.6 billion in two-way trade. Exports to China account for almost 5.5 per cent of New Zealand's total exports.

Mr Wen is the latest in a stream of recent high-level visitors from Beijing.

President Hu Jintao visited in 2003, and the chairman of the National People's Congress, Wu Bangguo, visited last May.

Helen Clark has visited China twice as Prime Minister and has met the Chinese leaders at other forums around Asia and the Pacific.

Not everyone is happy about Mr Wen's visit.

The Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) Association claims one of the Chinese ministers visiting with Mr Wen - Bo Xilai - was responsible for the torture and deaths of followers of the spiritual movement.

The association said Mr Bo, now China's Minister of Commerce, had been sued by a number of Falun Gong organisations around the world, saying he directed persecutions of their members.

- NZPA