When you support a particular political party it is important to not allow yourself to turn a blind eye to wrongdoing or poor behaviour on the part of its politicians. It is not right to castigate politicians you don’t like for the same sins that your favoured politicians commit but that you make excuses for.
If the leader of the Labour party had done what the leader of the National party allegedly did no one on this site would be trying to excuse her behaviour or turn a blind eye to it. They would be asking the same questions Helen Clark is asking and would be pointing out how very bad the optics appear to be.
Simon Bridges’ China trip is smelling decidedly whiffy. How can cosying up to the head of China’s secret police ever be spun in a positive light?
Helen Clark in a tweet expressed surprise that Bridges had not planned his trip through official diplomatic channels. If Jacinda Ardern had not gone through official channels wouldn’t we all be dragging her over the coals for it? Accusing her of being a commie, cosying up to worse commies? Of course we would.
Former prime minister Helen Clark has questioned Simon Bridges’ use of National MP Jian Yang to plan his controversial China visit.
The programme for the September trip, during which Bridges met the head of China’s secret police, was put together by Yang, official emails showed.
Yang came under scrutiny in 2017 when it was revealed he trained Chinese spies and worked in Chinese military intelligence for 15 years before he emigrated to New Zealand.
In response to questions on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Bridges said MFAT was “heavily involved in organising the China trip from start to finish”.
“Its officials attended and participated in all meetings,” the spokesperson said.
Asked on Tuesday if it was unusual for Yang to organise the trip, an MFAT spokesperson said the ministry had “provided support for elements” of the visit.
Emails between MFAT staff in August said Bridges’ office had “made clear” Yang was organising the trip and “they had no expectation that MFAT would be doing so“.
The problem here is that the e-mails contradict the claims that MFAT was “heavily involved in organising the China trip from start to finish.” What the media need to do now is to OIA the meeting notes and aide memoires that the MFAT staffers would have made after those meetings to find out if Simon Bridges discussed the belt and road initiative.
Bridges’ […] praised the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in an interview with state media and met with Guo Shengkun, the person in charge of the country’s secret police
stuff.co.nz/national/politics/118639454/helen-clark-questions-national-mp-jian-yang-planning-simon-bridges-china-trip
I suspect that this will be a drip-feed of allegations, to which Bridges will deny, then more information will come out to reveal the lies. First, we had the emails, then we had the claims that MFAT was involved from start to finish, then we will get proof that they weren’t, then we will find out what Bridges said and it will all be very cringey and crawly. They say a week is a long time in politics, but four weeks of not much news is even longer.
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