Victor Frederick Percival ONZM, QSM, businessman, died aged 81
When New Zealand signed the Free Trade Agreement with China in 2008 the then Prime Minister Helen Clark described Victor Percival as the "man who started it all".
But that really leaves many interesting things unsaid. Percival first began his business dealings with China in 1956. He was actually inclined to give Rewi Alley, the former New Zealand sheep farmer who settled in China in the 1920s much credit for his own progress in China.
One of his early contacts was an invitation to a Chinese Export Commodities Fair in Guangzhou (Canton). He was the only New Zealander there and took a map with him to show his hosts where he came from.
Back home the young man from Onehunga was hardly officially encouraged. Percival later said he was accused of being disloyal in seeking to trade with a Communist country. Foolhardy as well.
Eric Halstead, then Minister of Industries and Commerce, wished him well but warned "once you cross that border at Hong Kong you are on your own". "You could," he added, "be trapped in China for the rest of your days."
In fact it was the first of numerous trips in more than three decades for the managing director of Kelvin Industries.
In the early days he bought items such as canned mandarins and pineapple and later rice, chemicals and minerals.
But there were several difficulties in the early days, not least the American attitude to China.
"United States policy at that time dictated that China, a nation of 700 million people, didn't exist and most nations followed the American line. Import restrictions in New Zealand were also something of an obstacle.
"But I was confident that this attitude would change and that eventually China would become a major trading partner with New Zealand." He admitted with a wry smile in 1979: "My optimism was 20 years too early."
Over the years with two or three visits a year he built valuable contacts and goodwill. One of the keys to trade, he became convinced, was to be able to think like the Chinese.
In the early days accommodation and travel in China could be very basic. Business negotiations were conducted through official interpreters. And you were expected to listen to a compulsory lecture on the thoughts of Mao and where China was going and why.
"The Chinese [then] were very sensitive about Western attitudes," he said. "Later they became far more sophisticated and sure of their position in the world."
It may occasion some surprise that a man who did business with a communist country for so many years also happened to be a long-serving officer of the National Party.
And that in 1979 he said it was absolutely wrong to say there was no fundamental ideological difference between National and Labour.
"National stands for freedom of the individual and private enterprise in business," he said. "Labour believes in control of the resources of the country by the people of the country, a philosophy diametrically opposed to the freedom of the people and private enterprise."
Victor Percival, son of the late William Thomas and Martha Cook Percival died suddenly at home. He is is survived by relatives.