Among the many things that Winston Churchill never said is the saying, “I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do: behaviour never lies”. Still, he might have said it, had he lived to observe Jacinda Ardern.
Ardern talks a big game about “kindness”, and “human rights”, and being a steadfast Western ally in the Pacific. But her behaviour tells another story.
Refusing to join allies in objecting to China’s hosting of the Winter Olympics is just the latest example of Ardern’s hypocrisy.
To damn her government with faint praise, New Zealand has joined Australia’s action against China at the WTO. On every other metric, though, Ardern’s behaviour is completely at odds with her words.
Ardern has repeatedly sided with one of the world’s worst human rights abusers: China. Most egregiously, on climate change, another issue that Ardern loves to pontificate about, she publicly bashed Australia, one of the world’s smallest emitters, in the presence of the world’s single biggest emitter — you guessed it, China.
Ardern also refused to join New Zealand’s allies in passing a resolution against China over its abuses in China, instead going it alone and passing a much-watered-down resolution.
She is once again betraying her own words and her nation’s stance on human rights, by siding with China over the Winter Olympics.
Australia has joined 19 other countries in opting not to sign a truce with China ahead of next year’s Winter Olympics amid growing pressure for a diplomatic boycott of the event.
Guess who isn’t one of the 20 trying to hold China to account for its horrific human rights abuses?
None of the “Quad” members – United States, India, Australia and Japan – sponsored the resolution, and New Zealand was the only country in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, comprising Australia, NZ, Canada, the United Kingdom and the US, to sign the truce […]
Multiple Australian and US government sources, who are not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed the Biden administration was likely to announce some form of diplomatic boycott of Beijing 2022 as early as next week. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is weighing up a similar move.
A diplomatic boycott would involve not sending a delegation of officials to the Winter Olympics in February but allowing athletes to participate. It would be aimed at protesting against China’s human rights record across a number of fronts amid mounting concern for Ms Peng’s welfare.
The former doubles world No.1 went missing for weeks after accusing former Chinese vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault, before re-emerging in highly choreographed appearances.
Even Australia’s Quisling party, Labor, are being dragged into standing up to China.
Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, on Friday offered to work with the government to reach an agreed national position.
“The case of Peng Shuai raises serious concerns about athlete safety,” she said. “In light of this and ongoing concerns about the human rights situation in China, Labor is willing to work with the government to agree a bipartisan, national position on the level of Australia’s diplomatic representation at the Winter Olympics.”
Liberal senator Eric Abetz said Labor’s offer was a key opportunity for Australia to become the first Western country to boycott the event.
Abetz cites a laundry-list of human rights abuses by the communist dictatorship.
“From the Uighurs, organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, slave labour, the Hong Kongers, the Tibetans, the Mongolians, the Dalai Lama, debt-trap diplomacy, the South China Sea Islands, religious and journalistic persecution, the list goes on and on.”
Sydney Morning Herald
Let’s see if Jacinda Ardern follows up her own self-serving, prating rhetoric with action.
Or not, as usual.
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